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Re: [ox-en] The Story of Free Software in Kerala, India



Living in Thailand, I see also comparatively little of that attitude
that is necessary to create free software.

Without wanting to sound euro-centric in any way, I do believe that
this is a question of social evolution as well. Double free software
is a post-material structure, it requires generations who have lived
in a society that needs to be confident that material needs have been
taken care of for quite a while. In fact, peer producers are the
children of an already largely post-material mindset. But this is not
the case in India and most of Asia, where the priority of the people
is to achieve a minimum material welfare. Like my parents were, most
people here are happy to have a job, whatever that job is, it is not
yet a question of: "i'm unhappy with that job, I want a more
meaningfull activity to express my true passion'. These things will
happen in time, and of course, some people are indeed in that place,
but generally speaking, this is a process.

Some evidence for such claims, from Inglehart's longitudinal studies,
at http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/washington_quarterly/v023/23.1inglehart.html

quote:

This shift from materialist to postmaterialist values is only one
aspect of a much broader shift from modern to postmodern values that
is taking place throughout advanced industrial society. Postmodern
values are uncommon in most developing societies; they are still
moving from traditional to modern values. Both traditional and modern
values were shaped by economic scarcity, which prevailed almost
everywhere until recently. But during the past few decades, a new set
of postmodern values has been transforming the social, political,
economic, and sexual norms of rich countries around the [End Page 222]
globe. These new values reflect conditions of economic security. If
one grows up with a feeling that survival can be taken for granted,
instead of the feeling that survival is uncertain, it influences
almost every aspect of one's worldview.

In politics, insecurity is conducive to xenophobia, a need for strong
decisive leaders and deference to authority. Accordingly, the Great
Depression gave rise to xenophobic and authoritarian politics in many
societies around the world. A sense of basic security has the opposite
effect. Postmodern values emphasize self-expression instead of
deference to authority and are tolerant of other groups and even
regard exotic things and cultural diversity as stimulating and
interesting, not threatening.

The economic outlook of modern industrial society emphasized economic
growth and economic achievement above all. Postmodern values give
priority to environmental protection and cultural issues, even when
these goals conflict with maximizing economic growth.

On Sat, Apr 5, 2008 at 2:17 AM, Stefan Merten <smerten oekonux.de> wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
 Hash: SHA1

 Hi Frederick!

 6 months (199 days) ago Frederick \"FN\" Noronha wrote:
 >   The Story of Free Software in Kerala, India
 >
 >   This is the story of Free Software in the state of Kerala in India. I
 >   wrote this for a book entitled Knowledge Society and Development --
 >   Kerala Experience edited by Antony Palackal of Loyola College,
 >   Thiruvananthapuram, and Wesley Shrum of Louisiana State University.
 >   The article is published under a free licence, as mentioned at the end
 >   of the article. I am putting a slightly modified version here so that
 >   any interested person can make use of it.

 Thanks for sharing this here.

 It struck me that all the examples of Free Software you gave were
 either business oriented or somehow state / education driven. Indeed
 it reminded me of another Indian person who on some conference
 explained that in India virtually nobody is developing Doubly Free
 Software - i.e. there are virtually no volunteers who participate in a
 Free Software project just for the sake of having fun and helping the
 project.

 That person said that in India nobody would have the idea to program
 after business hours. And that in a country where indeed there is a
 comparatively high computer literacy.

 To illustrate what I mean: If you would write a history of Free
 Software in Germany there are also some businesses but the Free
 Software community consisting of volunteers *needs* to be mentioned.

 I wonder whether you omitted that history for Kerala for some reason,
 whether you would share the statement that there is virtually no
 Doubly Free Software development in India / Kerala or what else
 applies.


                                                Grüße

                                                Stefan
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