What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

jparp

Fri May 25 10:41:12 -0700 2007

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I really love these quotes by Eben Moglen:

"Free software, of which the operating system kernel called Linux is one very important example among thousands, free software is the single greatest technical reference library on Planet Earth, as of now.

The reason I say that is that free software is the only corpus of information fixed in a tangible form, through which anyone, anywhere, can go from naivete to the state of the art in a great technical subject — what computers can be made to do — solely by consulting material that is freely available for adaptation and reuse, in any way that she or he may want." In a speech to Harvard,

and

“If we know that what we are trying to accomplish is the spread of justice and social equality through the universalization of access to knowledge; If we know that what we are trying to do is build an economy of sharing which will rival the economies of ownership at every point where they directly compete; If we know that we are doing this as an alternative to coercive redistribution, that we have a third way in our hands for dealing with long and deep problems of human injustice; If we are conscious of what we have and know what we are trying to accomplish, then this is the moment for the first time in lifetimes, we can get it done.” At the plone conference last year.

The fact that the Free Software, Free Culture, Open Access Journals, Open Fabrication, etc.. etc.. are all intertwined, and growing exponentially in terms of community and productivity is also significant.

 

I think what I would tell the head of state, is that they need to make the organization and the accessibilty of information, as well as the creative productivity of the populace their number one priority if they want to see real progress in the development of their state. And the Free Software community is leading the way with both examples of how people can better organize information and productivity, as well as the tools for doing so.

 

I guess I would also want to say, that technology is growing somewhat out of control, and the only way to protect ourselves from the run away growth of technology is to share it openly, such that no single entity becomes too powerful. I guess this is a matter if diversity vs mono-culture, and it relates to Free Software, as Free Software is a great model for stimulating both diversity and productivity, wheras classical models tend to focus on generating profits through monocultures and monopolies, which are much more vulnerable to large scale failures.

But what am I saying, you are Bruce Perens ... I'm sure whatever you say will be great!

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

GuyFawkes

Fri May 25 10:56:57 -0700 2007

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I'd make the analogy of the printing press and the cheap affordable plain english bibles, which totally blew away the status quo, which was a pretty good parallel for proprietary lock in and drm.

of course, once the presses had run off copies of the bible, they were then used for everything you can imagine.

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

peacefinder

Fri May 25 12:10:07 -0700 2007

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"I'd make the analogy of the printing press and the cheap affordable plain english bibles, which totally blew away the status quo..."

A head of state might be rather unenthusiastic about blowing away the status quo. :-)

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

President4242

Fri May 25 11:12:51 -0700 2007

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I'd point out the one thing open standards offers to governments that closed source cannot and never will- compliance with transparancy and document retention requirments.  These laws are becoming popular all over the democratic government world, and open standards is the answer to the problem.

Sovereignty

Alan

Fri May 25 11:27:35 -0700 2007

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Sovereignty is obviously an important value to a sovereign. By using Microsoft software (why bother to pussyfoot -- that is the alternative) they give control of their information infrastructure -- including as time goes by, just about every document they generate -- to Bill Gates. It's almost treasonous to entrust this to a foreign company which is locking them in more and more with each "upgrade".

Sovereignty

Syylk

Fri May 25 11:41:37 -0700 2007

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100% agree.

And I'd add:

"Would you trust ALL of your information technology infrastructure to be owned and controlled by companies (*) that may be forced by a foreign ${ADJECTIVE} country to give out the remote controls for your infrastructure at any time?"

And replace ${ADJECTIVE} with either "competing" or "enemy", depending which head of state you're talking to.

It's a war. Fight FUD with FUD.

____

(*) Notice I didn't mention only Microsoft, as the same can be said of most closed code software houses, regardless of the foreign country they come from.

Sovereignty

jparp

Tue May 29 10:30:22 -0700 2007

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I just heard about an interesting example of a proprietary software firm disregarding a Nations sovereignty: Microsoft is refusing to acknowledge the national language of Bhutan, so as not to upset there market in China. More here:

http://www.kuenselonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8503

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

Larry_Dillon

Fri May 25 11:47:55 -0700 2007

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It depends upon the personality of the individual, but I'd stress the national security implications of being able to audit the source code.  It's hard to belive that M$ wouldn't collude/capitulate with the NSA.
After that I'd be thinking about open standards versus vendor lock-in.

Security implications, national sovereignity

lars

Sat May 26 02:02:35 -0700 2007

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It depends on the head of state. Some are world class intellects with world master level athletic backgrounds, others are as smart as a box of rocks and fall down a lot.

In general, most can appreciate the security implications, if they can be explained. But that can cut both ways. Some may really groove on the concept of total lock-in and surveillance, thinking that somehow, some way they will gain control over that lock-in and surveillance.

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

Charles E Hill

Fri May 25 12:13:45 -0700 2007

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Software, like any manufactured good, eventually moves towards a commodity status.  Capital saved by using commodity software is capital that can be invested in local talent to produce premium, non-commodity software.

The alternative is wasting large amounts of wealth by supporting artificial monopolies such as Microsoft Windows and Office, as well as proprietary behemoths such as Oracle.  Money sent to Redmond is money not spent at home.  Money not sent abroad is money that can be used for new development, and a correspondingly larger tax base.

Fostering the adoption of FOSS, especially where it is a commodity that is replacing an artificial monopoly, is good for the economy.

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

Thomas Lord

Fri May 25 12:36:58 -0700 2007

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Innovation that starts from the raw materials of free software is a growth industry.  If you keep in check any legal restrictions that prohibit free software in your country, then your domestic innovators get a leg up: they can create new businesses out of almost nothing by drawing upon and contributing back to the global community of free software programmers.   You can see clear examples of this throughout the world: in every country where free software can be used and contributed to, domestic business growth results.

A very few, simple principles of freedom -- the "free" in free software -- explain how this happens.   Briefly, in the free software world, states do not grant monopolies to any company over any distributed program.   If you look at something like Windows (er.. Vista) .... well, Microsoft has a monopoly on the future growth from that program.   If more programmers will be hired to work on it, Microsoft will do the hiring.   Free software, on the other hand, comes with no such artificial monopoly -- freedom is preserved.   New programming jobs working on (GNU/)Linux can be created in your country for no more reason than somebody wants to pay for the work!

So, free software puts all states -- and all people -- on a much more equal footing.  If you can solve your software problems entirely within the free software world, now you are working in a situation where your own economic growth is limited by nothing more than your imagination and the real opportunities.   Artificial barriers like license agreements and software patents can't get in the way of your entering any software market.

I would be happy arrange contacts for your economic policy staff to help develop policies ranging from simply *permitting* free software to flourish to outright encouraging domestic growth based on free software.

Thanks,
-t

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

Cary P.

Fri May 25 13:00:08 -0700 2007

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There is no reason a government for the people by the people, should not use software for the people by the people.

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

Cassius Rosenthal

Fri May 25 15:04:25 -0700 2007

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Here is an argument that jives with Libertarians, Progressives, and even educated Conservatives:

Software engineering is a science -- it is Computer Science.  The scientific method dictates that we only trust science that is published, peer-reviewed, and reproducible.  Closed source software is none of these, and that is why it is an obstacle to a healthy economy, and cannot be trusted in any critical capacity.  FOSS is exactly in line with the principles of the scientific method.

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

Uncle Entity

Fri May 25 15:26:03 -0700 2007

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Wait, isn't software engineering, um, engineering? Engineers have a long tradition of keeping the competition in the dark about their manufacturing processes and other methods. They might put out a press release every so often discussing their latest project to drum up investment money but they don't include enough details for it to be peer-reviewed and reproduced.

Closed source production is none of these, and that is why it is an obstacle to a healthy economy, and cannot be trusted in any critical capacity.

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

duhavid

Fri May 25 16:17:40 -0700 2007

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Minor correction, it is not the engineers deciding on disclosure issues.

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

Cassius Rosenthal

Sat May 26 08:21:37 -0700 2007

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Coward says: "Wait, isn't software engineering, um, engineering?"

No.  Software engineering is a science.  We are talking about information, not concrete.  Any head-of-state is going to prefer a modern analogy to an industrial-era analogy.  If you think someone is going to get hung-up on the work 'engineering,' then stick with Computer Science.  That's what academia terms the course, so it should be familiar.

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

rubycodez

Sat May 26 12:50:49 -0700 2007

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Engineering:  The discipline dealing with the art or science of applying scientific knowledge to practical problems.  The practical application of science to commerce or industry.


Applying computer science to practical problems seems to fit the definition of engineering, and having worked in both engineering of physical things and "software engineering"  the same stages of bringing product to market and dealings with customers' feedback and issues  were followed.

Now if someone wants a misuse of the term "engineer" in IT, look no further than some jobs billed as systems engineer or network engineer when all they really mean is technician/operator.

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

Andrew Glazebrook

Fri May 25 15:40:14 -0700 2007

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I'm not sure about Canada, but here in Australia our Head of State is the Queen of Australia, who also happens to be the Queen of England, NZ and various other places (including Canada). Monarchists often like to spin that the Governor General is Head of State here (Aus) since functionally they are.

It probably wouldn't hurt to mention globalisation and that many government are starting to standardise on open standards... could also mention that the security/lack of transparency/tie in of proprietry systems could become a stick for political opposition to use against them at some stage in the future too. National security is a fairly high profile field in the public's mind at the moment.

I agree that it'd vary based on who you are talking about. If someone more conservative, then it might worth talking about how computers are moving gradually towards more internet/web based services and that promoting open source in their country will help industry be competitive and keep up (maybe quote the % of web servers running open source software). Someone more progressive might benefit from hearing about the councils / governments moving to mandate open source software / documents and being encouraged to be an early adopter.

Some kind of financial figure would probably go well too. Even extending the life of PCs by one year because they'll run better on linux will mean millions of dollars of savings, let alone if the microsoft etc tax is dumped. It'd also be interesting to have a gov't lead with accreditation... if the country / states have a well developed gov't technical colleges system then there could be some interesting options there.

If it is a country looking to grow trade in goods / services with China, then explaining their official preference for open source and the opportunity for the head of state's workforce to better meet those needs/wants could be viewed as a great opportunity too.

Really, the best advice IMO, would be to find out what the Head of State is interested in and what the current issues are in their nation. If they've mate it to be head of state, they're more likely to be interested in ideas useful to them than nice philosophical arguements (though I would abandon that slant entirely).

two primary benefits

zogger

Fri May 25 17:10:47 -0700 2007

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That would be of interest to a national leader. Economically, you can't beat it with a stick, and it helps to keep the cash re circulating around inside the nation, rather than exporting the cash to...the other place. And closed source is usually *not cheap*, that's cash that can be spent for other purposes.

National Security. When you own the code, by having Free and free access to it, your IT guys can look at all of it, tweak it to fit,so it's better for your national security, in government, in business, and for the regular joe. Who really knows what is inside closed source and exactly why would you pay big bucks for that unknown?? Also, when the source is free, you don't have to worry about corruption, the temptation of untraceable cash is always there, people can be compromised over such a thing as a national sales contract for closed source. When you can just download it, sorta hard to do there, there's no bribery potential, again, a hefty plus +1 good for national security.

OK, three reasons. Leaders have to think immediate and long term, meaning generational. Open source is great to help the younger folks get into IT and so on, it's a great benefit there to know that your young nerds have full access to code and are free to use it and learn from it without restrictions or worrying about violating some other nations "rules". They won't have some private business cartel goon squad or the WTO or some other nation in general accusing them of being "pirates".

Economic benefits of der interweb

lars

Sat May 26 02:07:39 -0700 2007

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Even the dimmest bulbs pick up on the economic benefits of the Internet and, in particular, the WWW. A nudge might be needed to make the connection that the real money is generated by people / businesses using software. It's just a tool.

Open Source in general follows the academic research model which has brought us to the advanced industry we have today. Free software, as a subset, ensures that the dividends of this advancement get re-invested in further development. Economics.

What do you tell a head of state about Free Software?

bill_mcgonigle

Mon May 28 15:28:40 -0700 2007

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They can compete with the US in the software industry by using Open Source.  Our codebase is as good as Microsoft's, Oracle's, Apple's, etc.

Good luck home-growing a big industry player using the traditional method...