The Norwegian Unix User Group was founded in 1984, and is celebrating its 40th anniversary on August 10. A short while ago, I was approached by a member of the organizing team (whom I shall not name) and asked to speak at the event as a representative of the Norwegian BSD community. I was given no information about the event beyond what was expected of me (a 30-minute presentation on the topic of my choice) and the names of some of the other speakers. After some hesitation, as I was having a hard time coming up with a topic that I felt would fit the occasion, I initially accepted.
One thing I found odd was that NUUG’s own event calendar (archive) has no information about the event beyond a time and a place. I get that the list of speakers is not yet finalized, even though there’s less than a month to go, but there is literally nothing beyond “more information to come”. All the links just point back to the same page.
This morning, someone pointed out to me that there is a registration page (archive) for the event (which, again, NUUG’s own website does not link to or even mention!) with extensive information about the event. And that information… is not good.
tl;dr: the event is collocated with the Miss Norway 2024 finals and attendees are promised opportunities to have their pictures taken with the winners and runners-up.
WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK, NUUG?
It goes without saying that I will not be speaking at this event. I will try to turn my presentation (which I’d only outlined, not written yet) into a blog post, but no promises. It would have been a reflection on what “Unix” actually means (beyond the simple fact of the trademark) and how that has changed over the years.
If you’re a member (and perhaps even if you’re not), I encourage you to contact NUUG and let them know your thoughts on this matter.
EDIT: I have written to NUUG to ask them to either change their plans for the event, in which case I will be happy to attend and speak, or cancel my membership. I will update this post again when (if) they respond.
EDIT 2024-08-07: I have yet to receive an official response from NUUG. I’ve been told out-of-band that my email has been received and my membership canceled, but I appear to still be on the mailing list. In the meantime, Norwegian magazine kode24 has written a piece on the topic, citing my tweet and this blog post, which kicked up a bit of a fuss on Twitter. Knut Yrvin chose to respond directly to my month-old tweet with a strawman and insults while Malin Bruland rode to his defense with the same strawman. I am not impressed.