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CfP is open for Bits & Bäume 2022 about Digitisation and Sustainability

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Technology experts and ecologists join forces in the Bits & Bäume ('Bits and Trees') conference in October 2022 in Berlin. This year the FSFE is part of its organising committee. We look for exciting talks and insights about how Free Software can help realising a sustainable digital society. Share your expertise and apply until 7 June.

In the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) we want to empower users to control technology. This is a necessity for a free society but it is also fundamental for a more just and sustainable society. With Free Software we can keep maintaining programs and prevent software obsolescence. Using Free Software, we can repair and repurpose hardware, extending its lifetime and saving natural resources. It is only with Free Software that we can build long lasting and sustainable IT infrastructures.

Free Software relates to ecological sustainability. Last year, we published a study on the topic and we put theory into action by encouraging users to upcycle their Androids with Free Software operating systems. This year we joined the organising committee of the Bits & Bäume 2022, a prominent conference on digitisation and sustainability but also a movement.

Bits und Bäume logo shows a leaf tree with realistic illustration to the left side and pixelised look to the right.

On 30 September Bits & Bäume 2022 is starting its three-day conference. Environmental activists, technical experts and human rights activists are invited to contribute. The FSFE particularly encourages you to give talks about sustainable solutions involving Free Software. The key questions of this year's conference are:

  1. How should digitisation be shaped in a way that it contributes to a sustainable and democratic transformation of our society?
  2. What does a globally, economically, socially and ecologically just future look like in the digitalised world?
  3. What can the tech community (bits) and the justice and environmental movement (bäume) learn from each other? And how can those communities get in touch with social-ecological pioneer companies, science and politics?
  4. How can we become politically active together?

If your work or passion includes these themes, this is a perfect opportunity for you to share your knowledge. Possible formats include discussion rounds, lightning talks, project presentations, campaign planning, (hands-on) workshops, activist info tables, installations, film screenings, hackathons, design thinking sessions, interviews, live podcasts, small group work, cultural formats, world cafés, craft workshops, art performances, design elements or anything else creative and innovative you can think of! The talks in the conference are in English or German. You can enter proposals until 6 July 2022 23:59 (Europe/Berlin).

Constanze Kurz speaks on stage during the Bits und Bäume conference with a microphone in her hand and in the background a slide shows the name of the conference.
Constanze Kurz on stage at Bits&Bäume 2018, photo by Santiago Engelhardt. Licence: CC BY 4.0

Bits & Bäume is organised by Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), Brot für die Welt, Chaos Computer Club (CCC), Deutscher Naturschutzring (DNR), Einstein Centre Digital Future / Technische Universität Berlin, Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung e. V. (FIfF), Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), Germanwatch e.V., Institut für ökologische Wirtschaftsforschung (IÖW), Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie, Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland e. V. (OKF), Weizenbaum Institut e.V., Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft (ver.di)