SeaGL speaker Q&A: Georgia Young

Free Software Foundation staffer Georgia Young will speak at SeaGL this weekend:

Q: Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background?

My name is Georgia Young. I am the program manager for the Free Software Foundation and live in the Boston area. I joined the FSF in January as outreach and communication coordinator, had previously worked on LibrePlanet in 2014, and took on my new role this past summer. My job includes event management, writing about free software issues, connecting with the free software community, and fundraising to sustain the FSF’s work. I’m also a musician.

Q: Without tipping your hand on the actual talk, can you give us an idea of what we might expect?

This is my first free software talk, and I wanted to introduce people to a great free software program that is licensed under the GNU General Public License, a free software license written by Richard Stallman and administered by the Free Software Foundation.

I discovered Scribus around 2009, when I was in graduate school. Much of my professional experience is in the publishing industry, where nonfree programs reign. I wasn’t consciously thinking about Free as in Freedom when I chose Scribus, but the idea of software that was effective but not created by huge corporations like Adobe or Microsoft inherently appealed to me.

Twelve years after its initial release, I feel like Scribus deserves more attention than it gets. My aim is to get people interested in using this program for their own documents, and to get them thinking about freely licensed fonts, and other free software programs that can be used in concert with Scribus.

Q: Is this your first visit to SeaGL? If so, what are your expectations? If not, can you give us your impressions of the event?

It’s my first visit to SeaGL, to Seattle, to the Pacific Northwest in general! I’m looking forward to seeing a few familiar faces, meeting lots of new people, and hearing other great ideas arising from the free software community.

Q: If attending your talk inspires others to present at a conference, what can they do?

A: Talk to me or visit the Free Software Foundation table in the exhibit hall for more information about submitting a proposal to LibrePlanet, the FSF’s annual free software conference in the Boston area, March 19-20, 2016!