Omigod. The world just turned upsidedown.

So far as I can tell F/LOSS has never been the 'exclusive
terrain of
the political left'. Its politics have always been deeply
divided
between right-wing libertarians and left-wing models. Even
the
nominally left-wing advocates sound liberal rather than
left-wing in
their rhetoric (the focus on freedom, as in free software,
rather than
on ownership, for example, or, to put it in classical
political terms,
the favouring of liberty over equality and fraternity). Of
course,
that doesn't mean you can't put a compelling left-wing spin
on the
movement.

best,

Ben

On 3/9/07, Aaron Shaw <adshaw80gmail.com> wrote:
> Did the world really turn upside down? Politicians
(especially conservative
> ones in neoliberal democracies) capturing and
exploiting trends that enable
> them to downsize state expenses and claim popular
empowerment at the same
> time doesn't seem like anything too new to me (cf. the
Reagan
> administration)...
>
> Rather, I would say that this is an event which heralds
the extent to which
> F/LOSS has achieved widespread political and corporate
legitimacy such that
> it will no longer remain the exclusive terrain of the
political "left."
> Besides, leftist politicians have also utilized F/LOSS
to reinforce their
> populist and anti-neoliberal/anti-microsoft public
appeal. In other words,
> this is business - and by extension politics - as
usual.
>
> Just my 2¢
>
>
> Aaron Shaw
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 3/9/07, David Berry < d.berrysussex.ac.uk> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Open source politics
> >
> >
> > Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has promised that
an incoming
> Conservative (UK) government would create a level
playing field for open
> source software in the UK, in a move which could save
taxpayers more than
> £600 million a year.
> >
> > In a speech at the Royal Society of Arts, he also
announced the
> appointment of Mark Thompson, of the Judge Business
School at Cambridge
> University, to advise the Party on how to make Britain
the open source
> leader in Europe.
> >
> > Mr Osborne reckoned that opening up the market in
software would enable
> the Government to slash 5 per cent off Whitehall's
annual IT bill, because
> open software allows users to read, change and improve
its code, in contrast
> to proprietary software where a company controls the
source code.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?d
ef=news.story.page&obj_id=135394
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > cc-community mailing list
> > cc-communitylists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-community

> >
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
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Omigod. The world just turned upsidedown.

Thread: Omigod. The world just turned upsidedown.