[Linux-aus] linux.conf.au 2017 keynote -- Dan Callahan explores designing for failure

[Christopher Neugebauer (linux.conf.au 2017)]

How can the future of Open Source build upon the failures of the past?
linux.conf.au 2017 is turning to former Mozilla Persona developer, Dan
Callahan to help us understand.

One of the great frontiers of Open Source is in public infrastructure:
Open standards built around Open Source code should, in theory, allow
developers to select infrastructure without fear of vendor lock-in.

But who deploys that infrastructure? And what happens when major
deployers of that infrastructure go away?

We're delighted to welcome Dan Callahan to linux.conf.au 2017's
keynote stage, to share important lessons from such a piece of Open
Source infrastructure. linux.conf.au is being held in Hobart, Tasmania
from Monday 16 January 2017 until Friday 20 January 2017. Tickets are
now on sale: you can find out more about our ticket options from
https://linux.conf.au/attend

Dan works as a Software Engineer in Developer Relations at Mozilla,
whom he joined five years ago to work on Persona, a decentralised
browser-based identity and authentication system, which aimed to
replace passwords on the web with stronger cryptographic approaches.

Persona has been covered previously at linux.conf.au, including in
2013, where presenter François Marier underscored the importance of
open source identity projects for the security and privacy of users,
stating that:

    "Identity is a very significant piece of Internet infrastructure,
    and so it is critical that the solution that gets widely adopted
    be free-as-in-freedom, cross-browser, distributed and ruthlessly
    focused on making it easy for developers and end-users."

Despite noble goals and clear needs, development on Persona was halted
three years ago, and Mozilla plan to shut down the servers for Persona
by the end of 2016.

Dan's keynote, _Designing for Failure_, is a retrospective of the
technical and human factors encountered during the shutdown of
Persona: Why didn't Persona succeed? How did the shutdown affect the
organisations that depended upon Persona? And why, despite being a
protocol with an open specification, didn't a community-backed
replacement for Persona emerge?

We'll get the answers to these questions and more, but Dan asks a
deeper question: How can we design software and services robust enough
to not just gracefully degrade, but to gracefully die?

Come and learn from the past, so that we can better build the robust,
decentralised Open Source infrastructure of the future.


=== About linux.conf.au 2017 ===

linux.conf.au is a community-driven conference about the Linux
operating system and the vibrant ecosystem of Free and Open Source
Software that has grown up around it. Run in a different Australian or
New Zealand city each year by local volunteers, LCA invites more than
500 people to learn from the people who shape the future of Open
Source.

In 2017, linux.conf.au is welcoming you to Hobart, Tasmania, on Monday
16 through to Friday 20 January. Ticket are now open -- for more
information, see https://linux.conf.au/attend. We thank our Emperor
Penguin Sponsors, IBM and Hewlett Packard Enterprise for their
generous contribution to the conference. For more information, please
visit https://linux.conf.au

-- 
--Christopher Neugebauer <chair at hobart.lca2017.org>

Conference Director - linux.conf.au - January 2017 - Hobart
Tickets on sale now! https://linux.conf.au/attend