The article below is fairly interesting, however it could give some of the members of this list an interesting peek over at the other side of the fence. I'll be more interested in the discussion that could follow..
James
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/11/28/1652238
Why FOSS isn't on activist agendas
Wednesday December 13, 2006 (06:01 PM GMT)
By: Bruce Byfield
In theory, free and open source software (FOSS) should have a direct appeal to those concerned with ethics and social issues. Yet, in practice, it rarely does. Although the FOSS and activist communities frequently share ethical positions and social interests ranging from freedom of expression and cooperative organization to consumer rights, privacy, and anti-trust legislation, mostly the two groups remain unaware of each other. Why?
document.write('<script type=";text/javascript"; src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/ostg.linux/mainpage_p6_imu;pg=article;logged_in=0;tile='+dfp_tile+';tpc=community;tpc=advocacy;ord='+dfp_ord+'?"></script>'); dfp_tile++;
Those comfortable in both the FOSS and activist arenas see several problems that must be overcome before activists can accept FOSS. These problems include the FOSS community's insularity, its failure to deliver the right message to the activists' technophobia, and a failure to make connections. In the end, it may be only by seeing the values that underlie both FOSS and other causes that any connection can be made.
.