Message 01640 [Homepage] [Navigation]
Thread: oxenT01623 Message: 7/129 L5 [In index]
[First in Thread] [Last in Thread] [Date Next] [Date Prev]
[Next in Thread] [Prev in Thread] [Next Thread] [Prev Thread]

Re: Documentation Standards was Re: [ox-en] UserLinux



On 6 Dec 2003 at 20:38, Russell McOrmond wrote:

  I find it interesting that one type of creative work is considered
only malleable by an elite, but others are not.   We should not allow
that suggestion that something is currently beyond the average literacy
to be allowed to be an excuse to not fight for the longer-term freedom.
Some may be more skilled than others, but that does not make them an
elite.

Software is very, very different from other types of creative work -
it's a direct engineering solution. Not plans for a solution, an
*actual* solution.

Thus, it requires a level of technical knowledge quite beyond most
other areas of engineering and vastly beyond other creative works.
Most people can write a book or draw a picture with no special
training. Many could even sculpt. Designing a bridge requires
technical knowledge of materials etc and it gets progressively more
technical with things like designing an aircraft. However, software
is quite something else again - not only do you need a certain level
of technical knowledge just to operate a computer, you need way way
more to design software plus there is very little tolerance for error
- a comma in the wrong place, and your software isn't going to work.
There is more give for error in designing a jet engine.

Therefore, quite rightly, programmers tend to respect other
programmers of note. RMS could have said what he liked and no one
would have cared if he hadn't have written emacs among other things.
There is therefore an implicit elite in computer software and human
nature being like it is, we try to emulate our masters.

  Software is no different, and FLOSS (and peer production
methodologies generally) is really the movement that is dealing both
with accessibility of the instruments of participation as well as
increasing literacy!

I personally am far more interested in free software because it shows
that engineers don't need management - they can self-manage. This
seals shut the case for obsoleting the classical hierarchical
management model used by western business.

However, I do not think information wants to be free. Nor do I think
it /should/ be free because those who put in effort to create it
must be rewarded.

  Please don't confuse free/gratis with free/libre.  Those who say
  that
information is free are talking about information being a
non-rivalrous intangible good.  They are not talking about a price or
about any rejection of the moral and material rights most societies
believe that creators should receive.

I meant it both ways - as I said previously, information is power -
therefore, it will be innate human nature to control information as a
means of exerting power. While the internet is breaking down
traditional forms of enforcing information scarcity, it is inevitable
that new forms will be invented. And is that so bad - differences of
information create motivation just as much as differences of wealth -
it can be used for good as much as for evil.

  I happen to be one of those people who recognize that information is
naturally free, but still strongly believe that we should protect the
moral and material rights of creators as expressed in the UN UDHR
article 27b (balanced with other important rights such as
communications right sin article 19 and the rights of society to gain
from creativity in article 27a).

I take the view that all copyright & patent law needs throwing away
and redesigning from the ground up. Copyright in particular is
horribly archaic and it is deeply unfortunate that we have enshrined
it in UN conventions. Still, I guess they weren't to know.

No matter what, the information age and the ability to copy digital
information for no cost will ensure copyright law will become
unenforceable within decades, so it'll have to be rewritten. And the
only long-term sustainable solution requires global consent plus the
end of western economic hegemony. Things will get interesting, but
not before a lot of programmers, writers and artists have to get a
new job.

Cheers,
Niall






_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/



Thread: oxenT01623 Message: 7/129 L5 [In index]
Message 01640 [Homepage] [Navigation]