[ox] what I meant to say...
- From: <graham belegost.mit.edu>
- Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 19:41:16 -0400 (EDT)
Hi Leute,
I tried to speak in the Monday morning Oekonux session
and got myself in a complete muddle - too many 'entwicklungs'
and 'keimforms' - the first part of
this is a try at being a bit clearer (my excuse is that this partly
overlaps with some of Stefan Mn.'s mail, but I know these suggestions aren't
necessarily in line with what other people think is important!).
The second part is a more personal appeal for help cunningly
disguised as a proposal ;-)
A) When questions come up about the principles of free software,
they are naturally settled by reference to the FSF and the writings
of rms (as beautifully illustrated by the recent mails about
making money from free software!). It works partly because of the
(earned) authority of rms, partly because over time the principles
have shown themselves to be right. (prepares to be shot down in flames
by any BSD supporters around ;-)
But Oekonux (in my understanding) is partly about spreading these
principles to other parts of life and society, and in these there
is no automatic reason why the FSF should be helpful. rms is
generally personally sympathetic, but his main concern is software
(quite enough for one person anyway!). For example, I've heard
him tell musicians that they cannot make free computer-based music
until they have free software to do it with. Maybe right, maybe wrong,
but the musicians didn't agree (it was only an off-the-cuff remark
from rms, not as far as I know some thought-out permanent position,
but thats the point - he can't have a position on everything,
even if people expect him to).
Secondly the main goal of the FSF is freedom. Personally there are other
aspects of free software I think good: for example, it is good when
free software is developed by groups, not only individuals, and good when
the development is international and not limited to one country. This
doesn't increase the freedom of the software, but for me it increases
its 'Oekonux-ness'.
Many of these issues not covered by the FSF are common to all 'free'
developments. As LutzH says, Oekonux can't be a second FSF (why
would it have the authority?) where these questions are answered
definitively but it would be helpful to be able to say 'there was a good
discussion of this on an Oekonux list', or even 'and the consensus
of the list was.... for such and such reasons'.
Examples of such topics might be:
1. What to do in areas where free software is not yet available (as
the music example; also some of electronics) - what is the priority?
2. Ways to deal with patents in areas where patents are already
established (unlike software)
3. Accepting money/help from commercial organisations with their
own agenda (or political groups with their own agenda...) - what are
the dangers?
4. What elements of the gpl can be adopted for non software fields?
5. How to work across national/cultural boundaries more effectively?
6. How to link with the needs of developing countries (or, maybe, the
other way round...)
Personally, I don't know of any list at all that deals which such topics.
If there is one, please someone tell me and I will stop bothering this
list :-)
B. The second point isn't a proposal for Oekonux-the-group, but maybe for
individuals in the group.
There are many areas with obvious parallels and connections with free software.
Sometimes individuals work in them, but there is no easy-to-find internet
resource for them inspired by FSF/Oekonux-like ideas. In some cases the
gap gets filled by commercial sites (this has happened to a large extent
with embedded systems); otherwise, things just take longer to develop than
they might otherwise. Random examples where I know of individuals or
isolated groups doing work but don't know of any general web resources
are free biology/genetics, and manufacturing control systems; someone
in the conference suggested ecology-friendly power systems as a topic. The
potential list is endless; it just depends on peoples backgrounds/interests.
If any is interested in developing such sites, I'm hoping to
develop the Open Collector site code into something more general purpose.
At the moment it's a very boring perl/php/mysql mix; I'd like to replace
that with an XML-based format allowing easy interchange of data between
related sites (related topics or same topic,different language). Unlike
current web-site code I know of (eg slashcode, scoop) which mainly give
appearance/functionality, with perhaps rdf added as an afterthought,
I'd like to make the data (text/news articles/reviews/links/designs/ etc)
central, so sites using it could have completely different functionality
or appearance. Would anyone be interested in collaborating on this?
The catch is, you'd need to set up a website dealing with a new area ;-)
all the best
Graham
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