---
title: Bicycles as a Metaphor for FLOSS
osem_url: https://osem.seagl.org/conferences/seagl2019/program/proposals/690
beginning: '2019-11-16T14:45:00.000-08:00'
end: '2019-11-16T15:05:00.000-08:00'
presenters:
- name: Wm Salt Hale
  affiliation: Snowdrift.coop
  osem_url: https://osem.seagl.org/users/87
  gravatar_id: 3e18e58f206ab70b6ebd6c8cde5a37c4
  biography: "_/?/ Kilted Globetrotter,  \nFree/Libre/Open Advocate,  \nand Lifelong
    Hacker /?/_\n\nWilliam **Salt** Hale, is a Seattle local who studies Technology
    and Society at the University of Washington (UW) Department of Communication and
    is the Community Director at Snowdrift.coop. He attends, organizes, and speaks
    worldwide at: conferences, conventions, events, festivals, and faires; on various
    topics including: communication, crowdmatching, internet technologies, linux,
    music, sci-fi/fantasy, security, and windsports. Salt is very approachable and
    will always be found wearing a kilt."
---

Over the last three years, I have _really_ gotten into bicycling. From a negligible cycling past, I broke the 10,000 mile mark a while ago.

Last year, while riding from Seattle to Bellingham, from my biking community to my Linux community, I considered just how Freeing each transition had been. Historically biking has been associated with many things including health, happiness, and feminism. What about Free Software?

During the next 20 minutes, we will explore the open engineering, grassroots innovation, hands-on-learning, hidden dangers, bright horizons, and overall rad routes that both free software and bicycles cover mile by mile, together.

This ride through history, past, present, and future, will leave both free software and cycling enthusiasts with a deeper understanding of what it is that "sparks joy" within members of each group.

Join me in an exploration of excitement, engineering, and Freedom as we take this journey on two-wheeled, self-powered transportation and transformation!
