Upcoming first meeting of the Empowermentors Collective: intersectionally marginalized POC in free software & free culture!

The Empowermentors Collective is a skillshare, activism, and discussion network for intersectionally marginalized people of color (for example people of color with disabilities, trans* people of color, queer people of color, and women of color) within the free culture and free software movement.

After taking an availability poll with our current active participants, our first meeting is scheduled for Sunday, March 24th at 12:00 pm eastern time in the #empowermentors IRC channel on Freenode (weblink). Also, please join us at this year's LibrePlanet conference for a casual dinner meetup!

Our first meeting will provide a space for everyone to get to know one another; share announcements, projects, and events of interest; and discuss the activities and direction of the collective.

Current meeting agenda items:

• Introductions
• Personal plugs, announcements, events and projects to share
• Open vs closed email list/IRC channel
• Email list or other space for allies
• Need for website/blog?
• Established activities:
• Videos to transcribe
• Software bugs
• New activities:
• Alternative tech terms list (to "crippleware", "master/slave", "male/female plugs", etc)
• Your idea here!

To propose another item, please subscribe to our email discussion list or say hi on IRC. If you would like to learn more about our group, you can read about what we do and what motivates us on the LibrePlanet wiki:

We provide a space to:

• Meet and talk to people with a common interest and shared experiences in free culture and free software.
• Develop and share our skills and knowledge around free software and free culture.
• Identify, expose, and organize to confront issues of oppression within the free software and free culture communities.
• Expand our own philosophy at the cutting-edge of feminist, queer, critical race, and cyborg theory.

This opens up greater potential to:

• Form coalitions with other causes of importance to us.
• Create a free culture and free software movement that fights for us.
• Bridge the free culture and free software movement with our contemporaries in the critical intersectional analysis of oppression, hierarchy, and domination.

Please spread the word and pass this on!

Register now for LibrePlanet and Free Culture X 2013!

Two conferences are just around the corner that fellow free software and free culture advocates, hackers, curious technology users, and critical media participants won't want to miss. LibrePlanet and Free Culture X 2013 are two really exciting conferences at the intersection of technology, social justice, and media studies.

LibrePlanet is the Free Software Foundation's annual conference, this year titled "Commit Change", and will take place at the Harvard University Science Center on March 23rd & 24th 2013 or, in other words, very very soon! Free Culture X 2013 is this year's Students for Free Culture conference and will take place April 20th & 21st at New York Law School. 

What can you expect at each? 

LibrePlanet has a lot to offer people from different areas of expertise with varying levels of experience in free software. Whether you're interested in the profound social implications of software ownership, producing and sharing media with free technologies, or harnessing your own power over the computers around you as a hacker, you can get a lot out of  meeting fellow conference-goers and attending the talks and workshops at LibrePlanet. 

Registration is free for FSF Associate Members, or $90 otherwise. Discounted rates are available for students or for a single-day pass, and of course volunteering is a great way to get in at no cost at all! If you are unable to attend, there will be a live broadcast of the event online.

Free Culture X 2013 is half conference, with one day of talks and panels by brilliant minds challenging media monopolies and permission culture, and half unconference, with participatory workshops and working groups.

Registration is 100% pay-what-you-want, with a suggested donation of $15.00. Proceeds from the conference will help defray the costs of running a nonprofit, so please support as much as you can!

Both conferences will be very accessible and you should absolutely come if you are able. If you can't come, consider following along with the live webcast, participating in discussions during the events through social media, spreading the word now for others to attend, and donating if free software and free culture are valuable to you.