Since the United States (with its infamous Patriot Act) and Europe are on a fast track towards a surveillance state, Canada is unlikely to remain immune to such a fate. As a politically conscious hosting services provider, Koumbit thus adopted the RiseUp Collective Manifesto, written for the Global Day of Action against Data Retention (Oct. 11, 2008):

The communication networks of the coming decades are being built now, and we have an important decision to make: will the infrastructure of the future be one that supports freedom or one that is designed to facilitate surveillance and control?

Read the full RiseUp manifesto

Here is a little updater, for all you English speakers out there:

We're having a very busy fall at Koumbit, since we are hosting a two-day DrupalCamp in Montreal, starting next Friday, October 3. Registration is optional, but you can signup on the Drupal Groups page for us to have a better idea of how many people will show up.

In addition, we are in the process of beefing up our involvement in the Hostmaster (Ægir) project, in order to provide a better hosting management platform to our clients in the upcoming year.

Last but not least, we are holding our Annual General Assembly on October 10th, in our new loft space (see map). Koumbit members, as well as observers/non members are welcome. See the formal invitation here (French only).

This week's happy hour will take place under the theme of Koumbit's international activities.

All members and non-members interested in the fields of international development, and/or Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) development in an international setting, are welcome. This event will be the occasion to review Koumbit's past activities, and brainstorm on its current and future prospects.

Koumbit has just moved into a new office on June 15th. Please click here to see our new address and location.

Our new office space is a loft in Parc-Extension (a multi-ethnic neighbourhood of Montreal, next to the Outremont rail yards). To get there, walk six minutes towards the South from Parc metro (blue line) or the 80 bus terminal (if you come from Downtown). By car, take Parc Avenue or Rockland Drive and turn on Beaumont Avenue. On the picture above, you can see the very first sysadmin meeting to be held on the new premises.