[OS:N:] Unite and conquer

[Evan Leibovitch]

Jeremy Hogan wrote:

>Great article by Evan Leibovitch
>  
>
>http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/04/12/1516240&mode=thread&tid=132&tid=150&tid=82
>  
>

Thanks for the nice words, Jeremy.

It's totally exasperating to participate in events where FOSS supporters 
spend as much  talking about each other than about the problems of the 
current proprietary-driven IT environment. I've been at two such events 
-- conferences in Capetown and Geneva -- and it's downright saddening to 
see the result.

For better or worse, the old-time social development agencies (UNDP, 
World Bank) use the term "open source" in all of their policy documents. 
(I think that part of the reason for this is that the word "freedom" is 
a hot button term on the international scene whose ramifications are not 
universally considered positive). But rather than being applauded for 
taking baby steps away from the status-quo, they're being insulted for 
not going all the way and promoting a world without any proprietary 
software.

Example -- at a recent UN-sponsored IT conference in Geneva at which LPI 
and FSF were the only two FOSS supporters given standing, the only 
accomplishment of the FSF was getting the words "open source" stricken 
from policy documents and replaced with "free software". They simply 
assumed that the conference would endorse free software, but it didn't 
happen.  In the end, proprietary interests were able to eliminate *all* 
positive wording toward free software too -- it was simply noted as an 
alternative. LPI came too late to the game to affect that document but 
we won't let it happen again.

At very least, we need to focus on the positive -- not the evils of 
whatever-approaches-we-don't-like, but the reasons why to support our 
own positions. It's one of the reasons I like the OSN list, which is 
generally positive in tone. I don't post here much, but I do my share of 
lurking ;-).

"We have met the enemy, and he is us" -- Pogo, 1972
(I know that slogan shows up a lot but it's unfortunately _so_ appropriate)

- Evan