[JTL Day 209] Open Source Investigation part 2 - Is it really Free?

I continue with Open Source, starting with the phenomenon called Free Software and leaning to the idea of 'Free and Freedom'.

There is a movement initiated by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation (http://fsf.org)

Reading through Stallman's explanation on how and why he advocates exclusively only to Free software in opposing Open Source - as I get his conclusion it is that 'free software is freedom' and Open source is still 'of interests'.

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html

" Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement. For the free software movement, free software is an ethical imperative, essential respect for the users' freedom. By contrast, the philosophy of open source considers issues in terms of how to make software “better”—in a practical sense only. It says that non-free software is an inferior solution to the practical problem at hand. Most discussion of “open source” pays no attention to right and wrong, only to popularity and success.

For the free software movement, however, non-free software is a social problem, and the solution is to stop using it and move to free software."

Here comes Stallman's idea of real difference:

"A pure open source enthusiast, one that is not at all influenced by the ideals of free software, will say,

-“I am surprised you were able to make the program work so well without using our development model, but you did. How can I get a copy?” This attitude will reward schemes that take away our freedom, leading to its loss.

The free software activist will say,

-“Your program is very attractive, but I value my freedom more. So I reject your program. I will get my work done some other way, and support a project to develop a free replacement.” If we value our freedom, we can act to maintain and defend it.""

Open source means I can look into the source code - it's literally and absolutely transparent, I can fork(reuse) and modify it but after that, I can restrict the modified source's usage, I can make profit out of it to personal(corporate) interest as it does not enforce copyleft* and thus someone can develop closed-source software/product based on the code/knowledge.

* "What is Copyleft?

Copyleft is a general method for making a program (or other work) free, and requiring all modified and extended versions of the program to be free as well."

So, after this programmer introduction - I am asking what can be learned from this in terms of humanity/political/economic perspective?

The creations of "Open" can be monetized and it's further development can be "Closed/Non-free", while the "Free" means that in no way can be monetized, and it will always remain "Open and Free".

The idea is that with Open Source - the information can be shared and distributed transparently and effectively - which can be beneficial for catalyzing research and development and the reason is that corporations (even the big ones) do this, is that their 'interest' is maximizing their effectiveness, which is obviously: profit.

The point of profit is not 'evil' itself - if it's within a holistic principle of considering all participants equally, because our current human system is ingrained with monetary flow to such an extent that it is what keeps it alive - without this kind of 'interest' - there is not enough effective movement even for effective operation/surviving(infrastructure/electricity/food/transport/health care etc).

That is why the Free source is not yet that widely effective, because only few individuals do actually decide to create like that, who are able to have access to the basic requirements for living. If someone can't have food/shelter/healthy living perspective, it's obvious that the priority is to secure that - responsibility for family/surroundings is common sense, however it is crucial to invest into education of the individuals on what impact and consequence we are all accumulating with our decisions and actions.

Also it does not require to have a doctorate about quantum physics or rocket science to figure out that in a way we all are having impact on how the whole system operates, in fact mostly it is greater than we think - it is not difficult to be occupied and overwhelmed by our personal responsibilities that losing or never even had the bigger picture.

To develop skills to be able to investigate and understand effectively not only the personal, interpersonal but the universal levels of energy, resources, dynamics and interconnectedness of all participants within our human systems is also not just possible but very much needed to understand how much inequality and lack of real compassion is happening with actual people's conscience and very few are able to aim real support - and it is not charity I refer to, but to be able to find and access the core of the problems with our morality, the economic and monetary exploitation and deliberate abuse.

It is to understand that currently corporations are part of the already manifested inequality, separation but they are also keeping the system alive so to speak in terms of fueling infrastructure, common good and even the basics for living: electricity, food, basic services.

That is why doing riots, anarchist rage-protests, blame game cannot be a solution, because the participants of that do not even get that they would be the first line to suffering the consequence of the havoc they are willing to wreck, because emotions are in the way to see things through. But in fact we can only take responsibility for acceptances and allowances in terms of our real freedom we personally give away when not standing up to, not only for our own self-interest but for all others equally too.

The current schema for government/political/economic and corporate management is of 'Closed source' thus the details of the hidden agendas cannot be seen thus it is not obvious where the effectiveness, the common welfare of the population is being blocked and also being not obvious why and these questions has to be answered in order to be able to understand what are the facts in order to be able to change the systems what are determining our lives.

Free source and free software is really a great idea and in fact the people are creating those values also has to eat, have shelter, life support, which are not free within this current economic, political, law system. Even if the individuals/groups, who are researching, developing these intellectual values have access to those requirements for a healthy living, there is monetary flow within that support, which is undoubtedly interconnected with the money system as a whole.

Therefore it is also to recognize that the idea of 'Free' can be understood as really just being an 'idea', but interesting to realize also that the starting point of the whole money system as 'need to compete to survive' is also an idea, just it's within everybody's head and thus being played out becoming physical reality with real consequences, which of many are irreversible.

However to recognize the starting point of the strive towards freedom, Free Source, the General Public License - to create something what is for everybody equally: it is something what can be investigated and used as a model for the future within the interest of what is best for all.

Freedom is also an interesting concept - let not go into that - yet -, rather explore some Open Source initiatives:

Open Source Government: http://www.opengovguide.com/

Open Government Plan: https://osc.gov/Resources/OSC_Open-Govt-Plan_Nov2014.pdf

Open Source Ecology: http://opensourceecology.org/ 

http://vimeo.com/58165438

to be continued...

[JTL Day 208] Open Source Investigation part 1

After walking through my last topic of 'Tiredness' - I head on the concept of Open Source - starting
with generic information and then specifying into the details, continuing with decomposing and re-aligning my own perceptions/definitions/personality manifestations with principled, practical self-correction and commitment in regarding to the concept of 'Open Source'.

I start Open Source with what I know already and how I've became aware of.

This term came to me from the programmer world, where people are writing software codes what run on computer systems. The source code, what is the software, basically the mechanism, the program, the behavior, the form and actions computers and programmable machines do. The internet we use, websites, operating systems, machines, creative software, the whole infrastructure now runs by computer programs which all has source.

The source code is basically large sets of statements, conditions, loops and data combined together to handle and process information.

Specifying Source as 'Open', it seems to be obvious that there is 'Closed Source' code as well - this code optimally can be financed, someone would pay for what it can do. Banks for instance pay quite big fortunes to develop the source code handling their monetary operations, those must be exceptionally reliable and predictable, fast and stable - people has to be educated and organized, worked, directed to that level of efficiency, what is worthy of quite good money in the market.

There is however, 'free source' - people are making quite huge effort to ensure that the code they write, the software they develop, that has to be free, available for anyone, anytime.

Free source is not the same as Open source - there is some software what are free, but can not be changed, re-used, they has to remain as have been made - and to use freely.

Open source means anyone can 'fork'(copy and modify and reuse) it and surprisingly there is a great amount of reliable, stable, efficient open source software on the internet because those developers/coders/programmers/managers has the vision, the idea that these things what these open source software do should be available and basically free for anyone unconditionally.

Most programmers do know quite a lot about these paradigms, I also got familiar with this at the university from about 1997, and this existed way before that since the 1950's - anyone is interested can check out there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

There are a couple of foundations about it, I just list some of these

"Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in."

• http://opensource.org/about

"The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all free software users."

• https://www.fsf.org/about/

There are many-many non-profit organizations what are aligned with the Open Source model and surprisingly there are a LOT of Corporations what are actively supporting these communities with financial, technological and other support.

Their interest meets with the open source community standards within developing reliable and highly efficient software as they have recognized the power within the distributed peer review and transparent development/testing/application process.

There are Licenses with one can Release software and it's source code and that License is to ensure that the source is not used for profit, corporate interest by itself, but it must remain as free for all.

"The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works.
The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program--to make sure it remains free software for all its users."

• http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

Can Open Source be effective? Sure it can - there is Linux - an operating system which is really effective and popular among coders/system administrators. Anyone does not know Linux should check out because it is an outstanding creation which is just one of the example of Open Source Communities.

Now, I bring in an other Open Source concept, which is Open Source Democracy/Government/Politics.

Who read my blogs and listen my vlogs could notice that I've decided to stop excluding the law/politics/economics from my expansion of awareness. Not that I've lost my interest within Self-realization, Unification, stopping the Mind and transcending all perceived separation; it's quite the opposite!

I've realized that all what is here is entails who I am and the limit of my awareness is the exact limit of my responsibility I stand up to, which is still the process of birthing Life from the physical as individual, but as equal as one as Humanity as a whole as well - and that entails, encompasses, includes all systems, especially those what are the most relevant within influencing, directing the daily living of human lives.

The monetary, political systems are also part of ourselves and it is crucial to understand that because of we separated ourselves from the whole within perception and by that within our action, we has lost control, power and direction within giving away our responsibility of all as equal as one and only considering our own self-interest, our own happiness, which starts and for most people ends with survival.

By walking this process of Self-honesty it became clear that each and every single human being is equally responsible for the current state of earth - and it is not a bad thing! By taking responsibility we can nurture our awareness, in fact the very creation of ourselves of who we are as co-creators to recognize the opportunity to work together for a world which is best for all participants.

It seems to be far-fetched but actually starts with SELF here, realizing that if much more people would participate within the political scenarios with the starting point of giving as we would like to receive - it would quickly accumulate into real changes.

Current political system is like closed source program code - most people do not care about how the system works, they just want the benefits, not wanting to partake within the responsibility, just want the goodies - but actually we, each are unique and if all of us would give a little into the common system with responsibility - the whole world could become Open Source and Free for all - no more surviving, competition, abuse and deception...

For those who dare to walk out from the self-deception of one's own EGO, MIND-Perception - it should be pretty obvious that there is a tipping point from which there is no separation from self and others within responsibility, within awareness - thus real compassion can be re-defined and applied by not just looking at individual lives but as a holistic, whole system. That's where one starts to investigate not only the internal systems within one's behavior/personality patterns but also the external systems, the world system, how humanity is existing currently. What are the current forces directing humanity's destiny and what are the most relevant aspects with what we actually write our own history - and politics is one of that - we can deny it, blame it, exclude it, but those groups/individuals/interests are in directive power currently by having monetary/financial/media/military and political power - that is more relevant than anything else. We can say art, music, movies or even gaymarches are something but in fact not as relevant as the currently existing voting system which uses the deliberate misinformation, psychological warfare and the fact that people do not want to be responsible, they want somebody to have that, take care of that, to actually not to grow up and see the whole world as it is - that is all we have, that is we have for all. And I do not judge those who go to marches, maybe can be effective and for herding but it should not end just walking and shaking our hands but to investigate, engage, initiate and stand up and actually be the living example of change, even if it means to actually find and support people with real integrity, who is transparent, obviously dedicated and principled to remain consistent within considering what would be the best for all - that should be the starting point of politics in the first place - and it should not be the responsibility only for some while the others are just pawns of these power games. It is always equal and one - in the smaller - just like the greater - "I am always equal and one with all what I accept and allow within oneness and equality as SELF"

Just like we accept and allow our mind, thoughts, feelings, emotions, personalities, moods, reactions, memories, energies, associations, intuitions, desires, fears to constantly influence, direct us to not be able to stand up, get free and actually have the only relevant decision to make: to be responsible for all what is here.

That is where I see politics coming in - previously I had the impression that with art I can influence change but not really - art is also, just like spirituality: a product, a concept, stripped away from real freedom and the only way to be free is to take responsibility and not stop until it's absolute.

So I see that to actually participate within politics - is not really different than participate within community - and I know how corrupted, deceptive, twisted and foggy the current political forces can be seen, perceived, judged, concluded to, but it is imperative to realize that this is part of it's deception.

Just like we feel that we need our thoughts to automatically be accepted and energize, stimulate us with the inner friction to energize us to positive feelings, negative emotions to move us - the same is with the external systems - but we can take over within our mind and remain present, directive, and the same way we can participate within politics also step by step to embrace what is here and actually make a difference, live an example of change, to support. So for that I dedicate these posts to Open Source - because it's transparent, it's open, it's unconditional and can be used for real good.

"The open-politics theory, a narrow application of open-source governance, combines aspects of the free software and open content movements, promoting decision-making methods claimed to be more open, less antagonistic, and more capable of determining what is in the public interest with respect to public policy issues."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_governance

I find this as much as the free software quite fascinating, especially by seeing how much actually computer and program source code now is capable, able and actually do for the people, communities and in overall for all of humanity.

I use commercial software - and yes, I even pay for it, I still understand that specific software to develop: people do it as their job and expecting a wage, a living to earn by that and by considering the effectiveness of the software I buy/subscribe to use for those I am deciding to.

Now, there is also a great habit of people(especially the young) to get and use closed source software without paying - "downloading the cracked version" which even can be considered as crime at most places, because it is being judged as intellectual property.

I did that too - basically copied stolen code and used it - games, tool software, operating systems - I was like - "there is nothing I really steal, it's not like a car, the original remains if I copy it and anyway I do not have money for it and they should share it freely".

Since walking the Process of Self-realization - I was able to recognize that in fact I can take responsibility for all aspect of my life, my reality, starting with what I accept and allow and actually do and by considering the computer software too.

It is not a simple topic to discuss and I do not judge those who use cracked software, just I decided to pay when it is closed source and of course - I still can decide whether I need that specific software if it's not of Open/Free/Public License and if so, then considering how to get it with consideration of who've made it available - meaning for instance paying for it.

This is still a new thing for me, since a while I've tried to 'live' like this and by having a job, working for salary I can afford to pay for some software that I use.

And it is not even about considering my guilt-ego-trip as beating my chest that I am so great now - it's just my common sense and decision to live by.

If I like a software and it's made by a company/corporation - I want to support their work, their effort - and by that I do not just receive, I give too - kind of equal relationship.

Even if I download and use a software with Free/Open/Public License - it still does not mean that it has been created effortless, rather than the people who've made it, ensured that their (many times really hard) work is for giving it to all unconditionally.

It's kind of a concept to get accustomed to that always to look for what we can get, access, receive or expect, even demand but we are in this system just like everybody else - time and resources are not infinite.

By studying the ecosystem, nature, the land, animals, plants - it is the same - they get and give - in the long term there is an equal relationship, a balance or equilibrium, in a way it is one system.

To recognize this as a human individual might be challenging if one constantly focuses to one's needs, one's perspectives, one's self-interest, but in a way - it is also common sense to give as we would like to receive, because by that way we empower not only ourselves to practical equality but also encouraging others too.

That is why I work on this concept - because it is promising, it is something we can learn from - for instance this guy:

Rushkoff challenges us all to participate in the redesign of political institutions in a way which enables new solutions to social problems to emerge as the result of millions interactions. In this way, online communication may indeed be able to change offline politics.

http://www.rushkoff.com/open-source-democracy/

So for further investigation I will investigate these publications and continue on expanding with this topic:

https://thomaslagrua.wordpress.com/

http://livingincomeguaranteed.wordpress.com/

Information Secrecy vs Information Accountability

Open Source Direct Democracy - Living Income Guaranteed

Douglas Rushkoff - Open Source Democracy