It’s time I come out and say it. I am fascinated with open source. Not just open source software, but open source culture. The Creative Commons, Wikipedia, open source science, and so on and so forth.
Open source is not mystical, but to this date it is mystified by those
who do not understand it (everyone who is not a geek early adopter). At the same
time, however, it probably effects them on a day to day basis (Linux).
Whether they are computer or culturally based, there is a mystique
that surrounds them which I think needs to be broken. The general
public is confused, scared or takes open source projects for granted
And so I welcome a new category to this blog "The Open Book," section. May it grow and expand beyond its own control, similar to an open source project. Part of my goal in creating this new section is to re-interpret my rhetoric honors thesis from U.C. Berkeley.
The thesis was a discussion of…. are you ready for it… the evolution of the exchange of information.
For one year I sat and pondered how communication mediums were used
to exchange data, how these mediums evolved and finally, using Hegalian
ethics as a model, pondered how this evolution could occur in tandem
with human freedom. Believe it or not, I was able to turn that sentence
into 62 pages.
Part of my personal awe of open source stems not only from the end products, which are
often up to par if not beyond their closed source/copyrighted
counterparts, but in the underlying ethos that guides open source projects.
In what ways do open source projects provide a means for the
exchange of information that creates the conditions neccesary for a
greater human freedom? Part of this question harbors back to my days as
a philosophy/rhetoric major, but hopefully I could fill up another 62
pages on this subject without sounding too convoluted.
In my opinion, a serious book on the history of open source, the
philosophy behind it and how it is breaking into other fields (culture,
knowledge and science) is needed.
You should switch to Ubuntu.