Re: NOSI releases "Open Source Primer" for Nonprofits

At 4:36 PM -0500 2/19/04, Mark Bucciarelli wrote:
<snip>
>If you just focus on pragmatism, then the concepts of freedom will get lost
>and people will not understand why it is important to fight things like
>software patents.  These battles need many many enthusiastic volunteers
>because it is a big money fight.  The U.S. government is very aggressively
>working to export these intellectual product restrictions to other counties
>via trade negotiations.  In Tuesday's RMS talk, he said this was the best way
>for people to contribute to free software.
<snip>

But you have to find a way in the door, before you can begin to 
explain to people why this is important. There are several places in 
the primer where we talk about the importance of access to source 
code, and what kinds of benefit that has for an organization and the 
sector as a whole in comparison to proprietary alternatives.

Yes, I totally agree that these battles need many enthusiastic 
volunteers, and I consider myself one of them. But you have to 
understand that most of the people I deal with are in their own 
pitched battles that take all of their energy. Battling around 
software patents and intellectual property just isn't something they 
are going to do. If I can help them feed a few more people, help a 
few more women, or better lobby the Mass. legislature so they don't 
pass a stupid constitutional amendment using F/OSS, and they don't 
really want to hear the details, I will. I agree that's focused on 
pragmatism. Is that what I'd like given a perfect world? Absolutely 
not.
-- 
.Michelle

--------------------------
Michelle Murrain
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