Maybe we need to popularise such ideas among the NGO/not-for-profit/campaigner circuits too... FN

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Visit by Richard Stallman to OWI, 7 June 02 OWI - One World International http://www.oneworld.net/

Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Project and president of the Free Software Foundation, visited OWI on 7 June for a seminar with staff.

Stallman is the world�s best-known advocate of free � as opposed to open-source � software. He opposes the use of proprietary software, which he reasonably considers is largely motivated by the thirst of large corporations to make profits and to control computer use and indeed people for their own private and un-transparent ends.

He talked about the origins of the free software movement in the 1980s, among developers like himself opposed to the privatization of socially useful knowledge. The movement embraces a democratic principle in that the direction of software development is determined by the choices made by those who use and work on it, which anybody is free to do.

Ex-MIT programmer/developer Stallman described his moral revulsion when faced by the binding terms and conditions that the proprietary software corporations impose on users. He considers that most people in poor countries will never be able to afford the cost of software licence fees. He expressed strong distaste for the dubious means by which proprietary companies seek to enforce their licences in the South. In his view debate about the `digital divide' is in part an artificial one arising from restrictive government policies and unethical corporate behaviour.

Stallman described the early stages of developing GNU software (pronounced with a hard G), imitating proprietary Unix (GNU = Gnu is Not Unix), 18 years ago. Currently there are a reported 400,000-plus developers of free software around the world, working on a combination of GNU and Linux. They are opposed to the so-called open-source movement, which also uses Linux, on the grounds that the latter does not share the goal of a world in which everybody can use entirely free software.

Acknowledging that the task of freeing oneself from the dominance of Microsoft and other software corporations appears daunting, Stallman countered that the longer one depends on these corporations the heavier the dependency will become. So it makes sense, he said, to free oneself sooner rather than later.

Stallman was critical of NGOs that support ICT capacity-building among grassroots organizations and communities if this involves introducing them to proprietary software. He sees this as increasing the power of predatory corporations and therefore disempowering people and communities.

A new GNU project, NGU, aims to link GNU/Linux technical support with NGOs seeking to move from proprietary to free software. Few if any major NGOs have made such a move to date. But Stallman reported that the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sol has a policy of actively promoting free software and plans to install GNU-Linux for 1 million schoolchildren.

Stallman left OWI with some challenges about how we could work with and support the free software movement, e.g. by develop GNU-Linux training materials, supporting the development of free software packages where needed, and moving to GNU-Linux ourselves.

It would be interesting and helpful to know how important the Foundation Trustees consider the issue of free vs proprietary software. Is this something that the OneWorld Network should take a position on?

Links: www.gnu.org Free Software Foundation (FSF)

ML, June 02