<img src="http://samwilson.id.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010-10-19_1914_David_Clarke_ACS_WA_chairman-128x150.jpg" alt="" title="Mr Clarke" width="128" height="150" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-568" srcset="http://localhost/~sam/wp-samwilson.id.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010-10-19_1914_David_Clarke_ACS_WA_chairman-128x150.jpg 128w, http://localhost/~sam/wp-samwilson.id.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010-10-19_1914_David_Clarke_ACS_WA_chairman-427x500.jpg 427w, http://localhost/~sam/wp-samwilson.id.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010-10-19_1914_David_Clarke_ACS_WA_chairman-874x1024.jpg 874w" sizes="(max-width: 128px) 100vw, 128px" /><img src="http://samwilson.id.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010-10-19_1900_RMS_cropped-121x150.jpg" alt="" title="Mr Stallman" width="121" height="150" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-567" srcset="http://localhost/~sam/wp-samwilson.id.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010-10-19_1900_RMS_cropped-121x150.jpg 121w, http://localhost/~sam/wp-samwilson.id.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010-10-19_1900_RMS_cropped-404x500.jpg 404w, http://localhost/~sam/wp-samwilson.id.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010-10-19_1900_RMS_cropped.jpg 556w" sizes="(max-width: 121px) 100vw, 121px" />A big audience this evening for Richard Stallman at the Hyatt in Perth: a sharp divide between the suits and the t-shirts. RMS does not seem to quite gel with the ACS! In fact, David Clarke, in introducing him, said that he had no idea that the talk would be of interest to so many people.
I came away this evening encouraged about Free software, and inspired to continue to care about the issues involved — but also rather disheartened at the conservatism of the ICT sector (although it might just be Perth; it certainly wasn’t so strong in the Canberra ACS). I sat next to a chap who didn’t even want to clap at the end.
One last note: I love RMS’s rebuttal to so many questions put to him tonight: “I don’t know what you mean by that; that doesn’t even make any sense!”