What story does an institution tell about itself? To whom does a governance structure and its leadership serve? To what degree are leaders within a governing institution subject or exempt to the rules of the governed? We use this framework to discuss the unexpected announcement of Richard Stallman's re-appointment to the FSF board, by the FSF board.
Content warning: depression and sexual harassment are both mentioned in this episode.
Links:
Founder's Syndrome (Wikipedia article)
Statement on the Re-election of Richard Stallman to the FSF Board by the EFF
An open letter to remove Richard M. Stallman from all leadership positions
Not The First Time We Tried (FSF, GNU, RMS, etc.) by Sumana Harihareswara
Kat Walsh's statement of making arguments in opposition to RMS's reinstatement to the board (Twitter version) and announcement of resignation (Twitter version)
The Free Software Foundation and Richard Stallman by Benjamin Mako Hill, longtime FOSS advocate, former member of FSF board
Political cartoon between RMS and Chris from when Chris was in college
2018 Letter to the board in response to RMS's behavior and the board's lack of response
Marianne Corvellec’s Libre Planet 2017 talk “The GNU Philosophy: Ethics beyond ethics” where RMS says "I'm the president of the Free Software Foundation... so I don’t have to follow the rules"
