RE: [OS:N:] RE: N:] Open Source as a form of Anarcho-Communism?

["Paul Fitz" <pfitz dodo com au>]

Hi Anil,

Thanks for the feedback  :)

In regards to "capitalist structure called the Internet" I suppose I was
refferring to the structure from which it was created, that being the
capitalist/democratic government of the United states.  A vast majority of
the funding for the infrastructure of the Internet originally came from
universities and government sources.  Commercial interests now also own a
fair amount of the Internet's infrastrucure, in Australia (where I'm from)
one telco virtually owns the entire telecommunications system which the
Internet is running on (and they charge like they know it too)  I think
commercial interests are trying determine the direction the net is going
through censorship, content restriction and banning selected IP addresses
(china do this very well, banning unsavoury content).

When it comes down to it, I have to pay a corporate entity $30 a month to
access the internet - we are charged to access the information resource of
the www.  So at this stage in it's evolution, I think the Internet is a
common property to people who are relatively affluent (generally first
world, middle class users make up the majority).  I think Open source will
help to remedy this situation, at least making it possible to use software
of high quality for little or no cost. :)

So I was mainly really refering to the entities that allow us to access the
Internet. btw, I agree, I think that is the greatest attribute of the
Internet as well, everybody being able to contribute and share knowledge :)

Cheers,
Paul







-----Original Message-----
From: open-source-now-list-admin redhat com
[mailto:open-source-now-list-admin redhat com]On Behalf Of Anil
Srivastava
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 9:34 AM
To: open-source-now-list redhat com
Cc: Anil Srivastava; Paul Fitz
Subject: Re: [OS:N:] RE: N:] Open Source as a form of Anarcho-Communism?


Hi,

I look forward to Paul's paper on philosophy behind open source but
find it difficult to accept his statement  "... larger capitalist owned
structure called the Internet" because I believe that one of the great
attributes of Internet is that it is a common property where everybody
contributes and shares.

This is an important discourse.

Regards, Anil

On Tuesday, March 18, 2003, at 04:22  PM, Paul Fitz wrote:

>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm writing a paper at university anout the philosophy behind the
> creation
> of open source material.  It's actually a case study, using linux as
> the
> primary case in question.
>
> The main idea is that the Open source community is actually a mini
> anarch-communist community existing within the Internet - for a number
> of
> reasons - please read below.
>
> I'd like to hear some thoughts/feedback if anyone has time.
>
> My main reasoning is -
>
> Anarcho-communism disregards Lockean concepts of private property,
> which
> Open source does (to an extent) by opposing intellectual copyright -
> copyleft instead of copyright.
>
> Open sourcers reject capitalist ideology of supply-demand economics,
> open
> source programmers actively give their Intellectual property away - to
> 1 or
> 10'000'000 people.
>
> Anarcho-communism places a great emphasis on the workers owning the
> means of
> production.  In the case of the Internet, this would be the networks,
> and
> software running on them (OS's - Linux, servers - apache, languages -
> php,
> perl etc., databases -postgres mysql etc)  Open source shares the
> belief
> that the users should own the electornic means of production, as
> oposed to a
> corporation owning the networks and software to access them.
>
> Communist belief endorsing Good of the all over the few - All can
> benefit
> from open source product, only relatively affluent can afford to even
> use
> microsoft and even then, the source code is copyrighted intellectual
> property
>
> In ideal anarchist communities, the collective creates enough material
> to be
> independent from the states, open source is actively creating enough
> electronic material to be free of capitalist endorsed proprietary
> software.
>
> However, open source communities are also technocracies (to an extent -
> governed by technicians: a social system in which scientists,
> engineers, and
> technicians have high social  standing and political power).
>
> The open source commnity appears to be a 'gift economy' - where giving
> away
> code/ideas/advice is highly desirable and valuable. The more code and
> information the user creates/reproduces and gives to others, the more
> valued
> they are in the community.
>
> It seems that, if the open source community is a mini-anarcho-communist
> community, it co-exists within a larger capitalist owned structure
> called
> the Internet.  It actually depends on it for it's existence to an
> extent -
> would Linux be where it is today without the Internet?  It is unlikely
> - the
> net has allowed hundreds of thousands of motivated
> programmers/testers/users
> to help develop and refine many forms of open source software.
>
> Pretty basic thoughts at this stage, just curious to see what others
> think.
> Disagree/agree whatever, it's all useful :)
>
> Cheers,
> Paul
>
>
>
>
>
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