There we go. Thank you. We got it.
So, hello. It's my pleasure to be here with you today.
And I have a story for you to tell with a very catchy title,
Only Hackers Will Survive.
And I will tell you a bit why later on.
But before we begin, a little disclaimer.
In terms of accessibility and for visually disabled people who might listen
to us online, I would like to introduce myself as a person, female, almost 30.
And technology-wise, this technology, of course, were prepared only with open source software.
I hope it's clear for the crowd here. But some people might also listen to us later on online.
So I really would like to also point it out.
And in terms of ecology, all the file will prepare in a way to be the most effective as possible.
Possible so those are the three aspects that i will also build my story today
on and the whole talk will last
30 minutes afterward we will have a space for q and a so if any kind of.
Thought will pump up just
raise your hand afterwards and there is
a space for discussion and also there
will be like a short very quick one
announcement but this one a bit off the record and so so yeah welcome my name
is Joanna and I'm not developer I'm more like a researcher and I also advocate for open sources.
I work with educational organizations, with cultural organizations,
help them to transform themselves on this more ethical and sustainable path
and also help them to implement open source solutions in their organizations.
So this is what I'm doing. I'm promoting what you are, doing here.
So when I'm talking about accessibility for me it's a kind of a.
Respect and also openness for diverse
and resilient communities and as a
whole if we look as a communities as a social as a
us as a society as a whole system and
technology and ecology as well we all have to live
in a one big closed ecosystem which
is our planet earth and there are some issues emerge from that because on this
intersection of those relation between those systems sometimes some of them
are more extractive sometimes there is like a lack of,
harmony between because at the bottom of that we have a limited access to the to the resources.
Mostly water, because this is the resource that allows us all to live, all to survive.
And especially in the context of environmental aspect of technology,
it's been talking a lot about carbon footprint, energy, energy consumption,
but also I really would like to pay your attention to the footprint of water itself.
Because when it comes to, I will tell you the story from the perspective of a smartphone.
Year 2007, all of us know these dates, like first iPhone comes out and it totally
changed the way how we, changed how we, what was our relationship with the technology,
how we reach information,
how we produce data, how the data comes to us and how it forms our way of thinking
and perceiving the reality.
What is also important in terms of the water, I don't know if you were aware,
but to produce one single piece of a smartphone,
it is, in the whole life cycle of it, it generates water footprint in amount
of like 14 square meters.
So I will do a small experience for you right now and I will make 13 steps just
to realize you how much water is that one two three.
I think I will not even make it to able to
cross it just to it's why I'm doing it just to drive your imagination and just
to realizing you that everything that you want and this technological progress
also harming harming this those ecological and environmental systems so,
when we're talking about all everyone is it
working does work yeah thanks thanks excellent and
so when we are talking about everyone
today so on the smartphone it's like it's clear but i
really would like to pay your attention to like small things
that building our relationship with this
with this piece of hardware and i will pay your attention to notifications notifications
and especially the use of a red color red color in terms of like a psychology
it's kind of a like a signal for our brain that something wrong is happening,
that we immediately have to pay attention to it.
It also, at some point, if we are overexposed to the red color,
it can also affect our blood pulse,
and it can make us, even at some point, anxious.
Those are the hidden aspects of the psychology of colors.
Colors and this is this the the
the front side but when it comes to the very early stage of like making this
decision that in a way of like how we design our interfaces how we create a
technology that create us and shapes our behaviors and i want to also pay your attention to the,
raw earth mineral it's called europium i
don't know if you heard about it this is It's a really interesting aspect because
this only one particular rare earth mineral is responsible for illuminating
bright colors on our screen.
And currently it's really hard to recycle those metals so it is like 1% of efficiency
when it comes to recycling and repurposing this metal.
So as you can see, small decisions, small aspects like choosing the color,
choosing the right color which is affecting us personally on the level of psychology.
Also contributes to the aspect of...
Of the way how the natural resources are being extracted.
And also because the technological development,
which I'm a huge fan of, so I'm not standing against it, I'm just trying to
give you a broader context of that, is that we are not,
because our economy is of course linear and it's a huge problem,
them driven by consumerism and so we are not looking for a solution.
There is lack of, unfortunately, on a massive scale, of solutions,
how to repurpose, how to reuse it, how to rethink even the way we are creating our world today.
So we are constantly looking and constantly extracting metals and minerals,
even though from the very bottom
of the of our oceans so so
that's also the kind of like a alarm for
our society that maybe it's a way to better to
rethink how we create stuff and what is our relationship with them rather than
keep continue and keep maintaining same same system and so this is the those
are the consequences of this linear approach that we are just sourcing.
We don't think about putting our sources back in circulation.
Then everything is driven by sale and trends. But most importantly,
when it comes to the technology, what is the end of the life cycle of our hardware?
What is the end of the life cycle of our devices?
So and I will pay a bit more attention here because I will share with you a
few footages and outcomes from my recent research I done in India in electronic waste dumpsters,
mostly thankfully to the support for KDE community from India and what I found
there was really like it broke me totally,
but also gave me a lot of hope because I realized there are people like you
who are trying to find a solution for those problems.
And I think we all need to, at some point, be aware of that.
And those pictures are not easy, so sorry for them. Yeah.
But everyone deserves to know the truth, right?
So basically, the end of the life cycle of our smartphones, like there is a
very interesting research hub close to the UN.
Every year, they launch a new report about electronic waste and this problem
only skyrocketing, right?
So it's not that we are having enough
solution to overcome common to trying
to solve this issue and what is really personally bothering
me the most that we as a society already have a huge problem with a plastic
and we don't know how to solve it like the little plastic particles can be found
almost everywhere you know even the one of a pregnant woman and now we have
like another stream of electronic waste which is coming and which is
even way more complicated when it comes to processing it.
And we still don't know yet how to solve this problem.
And as you can see, a lot of smartphones,
like a lot of, for me, it is a kind of a crime against the humanity because,
you know, they are like global laws which are bound to transfer this type of
waste to the global self-countries, even though those developed countries like US, mostly US,
and Europe are still shipping this waste to the places where people don't have
enough capability to process it, don't have the technology.
So most of the work they are doing is done by hand.
And so we can imagine it's highly hazardous, it's highly dangerous.
And also what is really terrifying that there is, of course,
a lot of child labor as well.
And it's normal. Here you can see only the screens from the smartphones are being sold per kilo,
but there are like tons of those every day because it's interesting because
India became like the biggest hub of electronic waste in the whole Asia,
mostly because at some point China banned delivering waste from other European
and US and Australia and other countries.
So eventually this waste came to India.
Even though India has also signed up some agreements with other countries,
but people who are shipping this waste find a way, find a loop,
and they are transforming,
transporting it first to the Bhutan, then to Bhutan and Nepal and then this
waste goes directly to India.
So this market is 90% illegal, informal and.
And I think all of us, everyone who purchases any type of new hardware should
be aware that the whole cycle looks like that.
That our phones and our laptops do not exist without people in Democratic Republic
of Congo who are mining cobalt, do not exist without europium,
which I showed you before,
and other rare earth minerals elements.
And this problem is not only about smartphones, but in general about the whole technology.
Here you can see I found a spot where they were like dismelting the servers from the bungalow.
So this is how it ends up, unfortunately. Unfortunately, if we do not pay much
attention to it, if we do not ask questions,
what were really our old computers and hardwares and EPS lifecycle.
I also, when I went there, I was also re-inspired before by the research done by Polish researchers.
Researchers, they analyzed the picture from the,
there was an artist who made like, who take a footages of little crabs who are
find a way to form their home in a kind of a waste.
So I was also looking for a way how this problem affect the animals.
And it turns out that a lot of dogs, of course, in those places,
and other animals who are biting all the waste, who are drinking.
Water from like it
contained contaminated sources so
it's because all the waste when it's landfilled all
the toxic elements goes
directly to the groundwater and also to
the soil of course just like I said child
labor quite common and that's why
it's happening because the cost
of labor is extremely low so those
companies still can do it because
they can afford it because like processing electronic waste
just like i said before is extremely complicated also
the um in some places there
are machines which are require a lot of energy because the
process is not quite energy efficient so
the the amount of
like the metals they can extract from it actually cost of the energy overcome
the the final uh final uh final cell savings um so as you can see this is how
it looks like this is how most of the electronics ends up 60 according to the
electronic waste monitor,
65% of global electronic waste ends up like that, unfortunately.
So, yeah, but there were also kind of like little sparkling of hope over there
because I also been talking with local entrepreneurs there and they are extremely...
They see also opportunity in that.
And what they are doing here, but their technology is not safe and it's not
like, you know, here in Europe we have like a standards that you cannot overcome,
but there nothing like that exists.
So what they are doing, they are grounding the electronic waste and they are
melting it and then they are extracting gold out of it.
So and also the one guy over
there he also has a jewelry shop so as you
can see those resources came into the circulation but that was the dark side
of my presentation sorry for that i also i split into the half and now i promise
i bring some hope so don't worry.
Now it happened right
i mean we cannot do anything about it
but i think what's next is all
up to us and that's why we are here and i
also when i came back i
was listening i was really keen to find
the source of the issue really like a really deeply rooted
source of this problem and I came
into the contact with Joseph he was really he was
a really supportive for me and gave me like a lot
of insight of what's happening here what you are
doing in KDE because I feel and I believe that
open source is a is an ultimate solution for
like overcoming the planned obsolescence
of the hardware then I came into sorry for this
like a lot of text on the slide but I can share with you later but I wanted
to point out that especially in the context of France they are really there
is a legislation law regarding environmental aspects of IT and especially.
Hardware and though they point out what are the main reasons why people like
dropping their hardware why people they're dropping their smartphones and I
just realized this is mostly Mostly because this is mostly the human problem.
People do not know how to use the hardware properly, don't understand it,
don't know how to manage their data properly, how to keep it clean,
how to keep it structured.
So they eventually could...
The life cycle of their hardware could be a bit longer.
So then I realized this is all about like a mindset, right?
That for years, our economy, the way of living being the highly linear are.
And also there is this approach for sustainability that we have to like rethink,
redefine how we operate, that we have to repurpose things and put them in a constant circulation.
This is the circular economy. But then I jumped into the concept of a regenerative approach.
This is something even more, because at some point, if we open our minds for
being more regenerative,
it means that we as a community, as a society, have enough, and we are able
to also uplift and help the others, support our community.
And all this aspect is very also gets a lot of inspiration from permacomputing which is the.
Approach for like creating technology in
a way that it listened to the community listen
to the natural ecosystems it's not extractive but
rather rather collaborative so
I point out a few like a
a main aspect of of regenerative approach for
technology and for permacomputing and
it's of course just like i said before it's all
community-based and what's happening here at
kd it's all already community-based uh so
i i think um we are
on the good we're on a good path and i really highly appreciate that what's
happening here what's uh what are the what are the projects you are working
on and I also promote it among my friends and promote in the organizations because
your work, what you are doing here,
deserves even more and more recognition.
And those are the pictures from KDE India community gathering and again,
I'm extremely grateful for meeting those people because they also helped me
to conduct the field research on electronic waste dumpsters.
And also, especially in the context of a hacking culture, there is a space for experimentation.
There is a space for making mistakes. And no one is blaming for them because
they are a space for making ourselves and making our community stronger and resilient.
So this is also extremely.
Extremely important and also of
course is a thing for open
source in general open knowledge sharing but it's not that common I'm not it's
not that common everywhere so I again want to say and I really highly appreciate
that that's what's what's what's
happening here And there is also a really interesting project recently,
I think at the end of May,
correct me if I'm wrong, OptGreen.
It's also, I don't know if all of you have heard about it, is a part of a KDE
Echo project that stands for open knowledge sharing for the workshop,
for the meetings with the people who really need this kind of a solution.
Also, today on the way here we had a discussion with Paul, he's here, he just went.
That he,
we had a discussion about like promoting knowledge and solution at schools because
it turns out that a lot of schools don't have like,
you know, the access to the newest resources and And it turns out that they
also require a lot of like a knowledge, open knowledge exchange in a way to
being more green and more progressive.
And what is also important when it comes to like this regenerative approach
is a care for life and extending life cycle.
And here comes to play Okular, which is, again, I don't want to be like a sound
like you're a fan, like a psycho fan.
But I really appreciate what you are doing and
this ocular is is a proof that it's
doable right that the the software can be
done in a way that it do not contribute to
the planned obsolescence of the hardware and and I just pointed out just to
let you know that again I highly appreciate what's happening here and this project
is amazing and it's also you know I don't know the whole,
background of like getting through the process of this certification,
but it's really something and and it's also like a contributing in a way to.
Being more regenerative and um also this is a picture from uh kde india uh gathering
uh also there we had like a lot of really fruitful um discussion about keeping things simple um,
that was really interesting because there was like a growing trend of like this
future phones where people are especially abandoning this overstimulated work
of a lot of applications,
a lot of this red notification, which are grabbing our attention and trying
to keep it as simple as possible.
And here is a very interesting diagram.
It's like a gathering of trends,
what's happening when it comes to permacomputing,
and those are the links for the projects which we which you can dive deeper
after war just to stay inspired but as you can see there is a oh where is it.
No the thing is i wanted to point out 128 kilobyte club one kilobyte club over
there on the right, right?
So there is also this trend and there's like a craving for less.
That we, yeah. This, if you wanna have an access to this, it's a diagram.website.
And it's like a whole directory with very interesting projects and a very, very progressive one.
And here we can also find more information about the permacomputing and the
people who are involved in this movement and maybe also get a bit inspired by this approach.
And also at the heart of this is this new approach for the economy,
which is like the growth economy.
Which in this case is extremely important to reach the stage when we know that we have enough.
We know that we don't have to grow anymore we know that we what we already achieve,
it's actually fulfilling our needs and our desires and then there is like this,
changing point when we are just maintained we do not produce more we just make
it sure that our community our
projects our our goods are just being maintained in a way to sustain our,
community. And also...
Yeah, also again, this is also the picture from KD gathering in India.
So, yeah, I think it is important to, just like I point at the beginning,
that diverse and community is the resilient one that allow us to act free, right?
That we do not hurt anyone, that we are just in here together,
but we have a trust and we have respect for each other.
And reuse, right?
Because, yeah, again, Katie. Woo!
Because the first thing when it comes to sustainability,
circularity or regenerative approach is first of all refuse saying that we don't
need anymore that's enough and reuse give especially our hardware second,
chance right second chance upcycle it and try to like extend its life cycle as long as possible.
But also what is important is to repurpose.
Because I've told you I have the necklace on me made of PC boards.
Because right now we have so
many of these wastes, it is also important to rethink how we can reuse it.
I've seen some projects in Africa where people have been building walls for
their homes from old keyboards.
And also I also work with kids and we are trying to make some little stuff and
like sculptures also again made from the waste,
just to realize that this is a really valuable,
resource that we can repurpose, reuse it and try to look for the alternative
solution and try to extend the lifecycle as long as possible to the moment where
we will be able to recycle it in a very effective and efficient way.
There was someone from New Zealand, as good I remember.
Hello, also to bring more hope when it comes to the like a bio-based technology,
bio-based solution for recycling.
There is a really strong movement right now happening when it comes to using
microbes and to recycling and extracting metals from the electronic ways, so it's happening.
But the thing is this technology is on a very early stage, so before it will
be commercialized and will reach the scale that will help us to solve this problem,
we still at the moment right now we have to use our imagination,
we have to be very creative in a way to reuse and repurpose this waste that is all over around here.
So I'm going to, again, point out to the mindset, because it's all about our perception,
all about the systems that we are interfering with.
And at the end, I think the whole change begins here, not with the technology,
but with the way we perceive it, the way we work with it, what are our expectations
for it and what we can do to make sure that we all together as a societal,
ecological and technological system can fit into this one circle which is our
planet Earth which resources are limited,
and we all have to keep that in mind.
Yeah, those are those three systems I wanted to discuss with you. And I have once again...
A lot of love for you what you are doing here and a lot of appreciation uh because from uh,
social uh point of view
um you provide uh accessibility
uh provide like a access to the people who are not being able to uh buy a new
piece of hardware uh i've seen a beautiful projects of like at schools where
in the under in the countries in the global south.
Which was was not able to buy new hardware but they could and some countries
send them like a 20 50 years old
computers but they were able to use them because they repurpose it they
reinstall the system, they fit the software that allows them to use it.
So from the social point of view, it's extremely beneficial.
From environmental point of view, it's extremely important because it allows
to stay hardware with us a bit longer.
And from technological point of view, it's also uplift and inspire other to
innovate and to share openly the knowledge.
And that's the aspect of the hackers and hacking mindset because I think those
are the qualities that will help us to survive on this planet,
which is under threat, unfortunately.
But those gatherings like here are only proving that there is a hope.
And this hope is community-driven by KD.
Oh, and I have a short announcement. Can we maybe stop recording?
Because I don't want to stream it.
Excellent. Welcome back, life. L-life.
Oh, there is a... He's got a light.
Did you turn the switch? It should be green.
Ah okay yeah there you go so if there is one thing you could wish from free
software developers and the KDE community to help combat e-waste what would it be?
I think you're already doing it and to be honest like with all the KDE Echo,
projects and like from what
i know especially from you joseph that you're organizing workshop working with
teenagers and i think would be really nice to have more of a young people here
just to make sure that we will pass this knowledge we will pass this mindset to them and And,
yeah.
I mean, yeah, I just realized that the best what we can do is to extend as long
as possible the life cycle of the hardware.
That's the best what we can do. And that also, at the other hand,
would contribute to slowing down this whole trend of consumptionism.
You had the one slide which said degrowth um more or less every company i know
wants to grow and we have a you know we have capitalism all over the world that's a hard sell,
it's probably necessary but yeah but the
thing is um maybe i will switch into the slides because that's the curve of
the growth that we grow to the certain point and we know what where where are
our limitations and then we only maintain uh and i know all the companies want
to grow but i think we need to find some kind of uh of a balance here right
and but this this trend is also growing there are more and more like an oh.
Even investors who are not like requiring uh cashing out in a way of being like
highly on highly on growth so it's again uh the thing with a mindset right that
we require more and more and more.
But the thing is that we still forget that we live in a closed cycle,
in a closed ecosystem that also has its limitation.
And it will take years for natural resources to restore.
And I think it's not a threat for the planet but it's a threat for our society and civilization.
Thank you.
So, hi, thanks for your great talk.
I think a lot has to happen in the countries in the global north to prevent
all this e-waste and stuff you mentioned.
Are there political movements or initiatives you are aware of or that are happening right
now that try to combat these things from these countries as well.
I'm thinking about like the right to repair movement and stuff like that.
So I'm also a huge fan of it. We all have a right to repair.
But this issue, this challenge is systematic because at some point,
some Some of the hardware is not being designed and created in a way to be able to be repaired.
But I see also a lot of repairing cafes popping up all over the world, actually.
And also there is this legislation coming on from the European Union that the
extended responsibility of a manufacturer.
Structure uh so but it's also
it's a beautiful idea but i'm looking forward for
for the for for the execution also i
see uh the trend especially when it
comes to like purchasing hardware in the
companies that they are looking for uh refabricated
hardware uh so they are this is like that
they are not it's not their choice to look for for
uh first choice of option to look
for for for the new equipment so they're trying also to
look for something on a second-hand market and uh
and yeah and also on this level of like
the the customers they are also trying to repair re upcycle
uh i've seen a really beautiful projects
of uh like repurposing uh
smartphones there are like almost 20 different
ways how you can use your old smartphone as ccc
tv camera as a joystick as a
controller so it's again it's
about like a hacking culture which are looking for those different way of using
hardware which are openly sharing the knowledge and this attitude is extremely
important and also they are like maker like hubs and workshops where people like.
Community-based or gathering and trying to exchange knowledge,
but also tools, because it's also a matter of tools, but not all people have an access to them.
So there's a hope.
But it requires more recognition.
To complement open software with, to push open hardware that complements longevity of open software,
how can we push such open hardware without creating new hardware?
That's a good question. Million dollar question.
Question um i think creating more of a open hardware and promoting it that's
the only because also this is a problem in general that the hardware even though
my phone will die after a few years i'm not able to cycle it and put a new software
on it so it's not uh compatible,
and there are a lot of projects open hardware projects but they are um.
Again, deserve more recognition.
And I think from the perspective of a person who is trying to create this bridge
between tech-savvy communities and people who are really willing to look for
alternative solutions,
I think the language is too complicated for them, first of all.
And secondly, also the visual language is not
accessible for them enough to understand and to
be able to make this decision that I really want to
go for for the Opera hardware they want to go but
from what I heard from a lot of
people that they have a problem with Linux there are
some issues so they don't know how to solve them and and
I think more care for this like user experience side for education for like
a support would be very also beneficial and that would also uplift this aspect of recognition,
which is required.
I had to go really down to the basements, some hackerspaces,
to find out about the projects, but I'm really driven by heart to do it,
but not many people are willing to go in such places.
And I know, because I've been also at the Chaos Computer Club,
but there are a lot of excellent, beautiful projects already there.
But they need more, again, more recognition for that.
So one of the problems in the hardware I hear about is that some electronics
are made so that they're designed to break just after some time,
like just after the warranty expires.
And even if you have the right to repair you still you know you need to still
buy new parts right which of course is still a kind of waste so what do you
think people can do about this matter,
yeah so this is the planned hardware obsolescence which is like creating a hardware
in a way to it will end its life cycle after a certain time.
And I think it also requires educating people at the very early stage who are
making decisions how this hardware is being created and how this hardware is being designed.
And there is this trend of a modular approach where you can just replace models,
because that's the easiest way to do it.
But again, it's on the growth. And more and more people and more and more gatherings
like that, I hope, will solve those problems.
Can we go offline?