[TOS] First draft of textbook: introductory chapter (foreword?)

MJ Ray mjr at phonecoop.coop
Thu Sep 10 08:21:39 UTC 2009


Matthew Jadud <mjadud at allegheny.edu> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 14:26, MJ Ray<mjr at phonecoop.coop> wrote:
> > Personally, I'd prefer you to call it simply "free software" or
> > "cooperatively-developed software", but FOSS or FLOSS is OK.
> 
> A small comment: "cooperatively-developed software" may not be 100%
> correct in all instances, but I like the fact that it describes the
> behavior of the developer, rather than trying to capture
> features/philosophies surrounding the code/artifact. It focuses the
> discussion differently: instead of being a discussion of terminology
> and philosophy, it is a discussion of behavior. [...]

I feel it's a discussion of both behaviour and philosophy.  While most
people have some concept of cooperative work (arguably more so than
the general public perception of free or open), there is the
International Cooperative Alliance Statement on the Co-operative
Identity to which most coops subscribe.  Points like education and
concern for community are definitely about behaviour, but others like
democratic control and member economic participation are probably more
philosophical.

It neatly avoids all the insults about "technically open-source but
vendor-controlled" and so on, which I think are the problems which
arise from trying to capture the features of the code that are
mentioned above.  After all, the best free software and open source
software is developed in a cooperative manner, isn't it?

But, as I wrote before, it's fine not to call it that, as long as
it's called something inclusive, without trolling other views.

Regards,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef)  LMS developer and webmaster at     | software
www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk        |  .... co
IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html |  .... op



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