OpenSourceSociety

Open Source: A Model for Social Change « People’s Informative.

“The world right now is in upheaval. The ridiculous and dangerous extent to which unrestrained greed permeates the upper reaches of power in the industrialized world has been laid bare for all the world to see. What is even more unusual is that our leaders seem to have no answers for how to solve the crisis. The resolutions being proffered by the world’s financial and political elite have left many people with a bad taste in their mouths. There is a growing sentiment that surely we can do better than this?”

Read the rest of my article on how the open source movement provides an excellent framework for social activists at The People’s Informative Collective.

Propaganda of the Seed 2.0: Go Open Source! « People’s Informative.

Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) is a prime example of anarchism in action.  Operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD allow computer users complete freedom in their use of their hardware.  In short: If your hardware can do it, FOSS operating systems will allow you to do it.  While this may not seem to be an issue, ask a serious computer user.  They will tell you that Microsoft and Macintosh both charge exorbitant fees in order for users to modify their source code.”

I couldn’t agree more.  The open-source movement in general is no less than practiced communalism.  The cooperation of thousands (if not millions) of individuals not seeking profit or fame, but simply doing what they see needs to be done and sharing that work freely with others.

The kicker of it is, none of this precludes anyone’s ability to make a profit off their work, as so many people try to claim.  The beauty of most open-source licensing schemes is that they give the original creator of the work, or anyone else for that matter, the right to package and sell that work to other people any way they like, as long as the original creator is credited for their contributions  Another common practice is to offer the software for free, but to charge for help and support to users.

“Open source” does not always imply free (as in beer) either.  Plenty of companies have built businesses around software which is not free, but which does include the source code and the right of end-users to modify that code however they see fit.  The flexibility to do this is one of the things that makes open-source so great.

Part of my original goal for this blog was to show how this model of free cooperation and total disclosure of methods could be applied to other aspects of our lives not necessaril related to software or computers at all.  I have strayed far and wide from that goal, but I’m going to be making a conscious effor to get back on track over the coming months.

The Endgame Strategist | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters.

“As everyone knows (especially revolutionaries), hierarchy maintains formidable defenses against attack from the lower orders. It has none, however, against abandonment. This is in part because it can imagine revolution, but it can’t imagine abandonment, it couldn’t defend against it, because abandonment isn’t an attack, it’s just a discontinuance of support.”  –Daniel Quinn “Beyond Civilization”

Exactly.  In studying our own American revolution, it dawned on me that one of the most successful tactics used by the Americans was to set up their own structures of power and authority that made the existing British power structure superfluous.  When your local “Committee of Safety” held the real power and influence, there was no need to appeal to the Crown for anything.   The Revolution was one before a single shot was ever fired, because the people of America tacitly accepted the new leaders in place of the old.

The lesson here is that revolutions are not won by murdering the people who currently hold power, and destroying their edifices.  They are won by creating alternative structures of authority and resource distribution that serve the needs of the people better than the existing superstructure, even while working within that existing framework.  The result of doing this is that people will begin to respect and rely on the new structures, and simply abandon the old ones.

Of course, I disagree with Mr. Quinn that the old power have no defenses against this.  A cursory glance at the laws and constitutions in America shows that we have many “No other gods before me” clauses in all of them.  Our existing governments have claimed for themselves exclusive authority over many necessary functions of government, precisely because it is these powers that reinforce their legitimacy.

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