Privates Blog
My take on what free and open source communities are about: friendship
I’ve posted this five years ago on social media, but it didn’t lose any of its relevance: Being active in a free software project is about much more than just code.
How to avoid storing e-mail, URL and IP address of WordPress commenters
I’ve created my first WordPress plugin which helps creating more privacy for blog comments. It hides the input fields for e-mail and URL in new blog comments and omits storing the IP addresses of commenters in the WordPress database.
„WordPress plugin to provide more privacy for comments“ weiterlesen
Why I’m proud to have friends around the globe and what made OSCAL 2018 such a special event
Two weeks ago I had the honour of being a speaker at OSCAL in Tirana, the Albanian Open Source Conference. Still having vivid memories of this remarkable event, let me share my impressions with you while they’re fresh.
„Piramida, Protik and party – my first visit to OSCAL“ weiterlesen
Introduction to The Document Foundation’s setup as a German Stiftung
At OSCAL 2018 in Tirana I had the opportunity to give a talk about “The Document Foundation: The open, transparent and meritocratic future of free office software”. I’ll tell you what The Document Foundation is about, how it’s built and what our core values and principles are.
Why free software and the art of cooking have more in common than you may think
What’s probably the most stupid idea to promote the principles of free software without actually coding? Well, I might have a proposal for you: Let’s do some Open Source Cooking! We’ve in fact been doing that in Munich for the past eight years already and the idea behind it is rather trivial: “Why don’t we cook together with many others – like, 30 people?!”
The name Open Source Cooking has been used initially because the idea was grown during our regular Open Source Meetings. However, soon we realized that cooking and free software have actually much more in common than it looks like in first place! So let me make you hungry for more…
„What do open source and cooking have in common?“ weiterlesen
Why cooking and open source have more in common than you might think
At OSCAL 2018 in Tirana I had the opportunity to give a talk about “How to cook your own open source event?”. I’ll tell you why cooking and open source have more in common than you might think.
The slides are available for download (PDF file, 7,5 MB).
„How to cook your own open source event? (talk at OSCAL 2018)“ weiterlesen
How to import your SSL certificates on RouterOS with Let’s Encrypt using DNS-based domain verification
While MikroTik RouterOS supports creation of self-signed SSL certificates, Let’s Encrypt provides a convenient way to get validated certificates without costs or hassles. Unfortunately, RouterOS doesn’t support that mechanism out of the box yet, but with the help of a second machine and the DNS challenge validation, they can be created and imported fairly easy.
„Creating SSL certificates on RouterOS with Let’s Encrypt“ weiterlesen
How to create wildcard certificates with Let’s Encrypt using DNS-based domain verification
For the past months, I’ve been relying on Let’s Encrypt to secure my domain with a free SSL certificate. The setup is fairly easy and to me, they provide an invaluable service. Recently, Let’s Encrypt has announced support for wildcard certificates which makes the life of system administrators even easier.
How leadership in an open source community can work, in ten lessons learned
Many activities these days, be it sports, social work, arts or free and open source software, are organized in some sort of community. If backed by a respective legal entity, this not only helps with getting donations and entering contracts, but also puts statutes and rules in place that set forth the values and ideals all contributors share and abide to.
Inside these communities, there can be various roles. Some of them as formal requirement and with annual or biannual elections, e.g. the board of directors or the supervisory board, others within dynamically grown groups that can change frequently. Either of those are ideally composed of experienced and enthusiastic community members who take leadership and responsibility.
How religion and open source communities can relate to each other
Four years ago, I received concerns via private e-mail about religious views in free software projects and posted a statement about it on social media. Given it’s more relevant than ever, I’d like to share it again on my blog.