austraLasia #2055

A 10th birthday, on 9th February, that should not pass by unnoticed

THE WORLD: 9th February 2008 -- We have liturgical and other calendars aplenty (and of course in Salesian terms, 9th February is the memorial of Blessed Eusebia Palomino), but 9th February 2008 records a decade possibly on no calendar but with more significance than meets the eye.  It was on 9th February that someone called Bruce Perens (lesser known) and Eric Raymond (much better known), created the 'Open Source Initiative'.  Effectively, a decade ago today, Open Source became known to the world.  It has made a difference, a huge difference. And I, at least, suspect that in view of the Strenna 2008, Open Source is going to make even more of a difference. Let me explain.
    In just the past 12 months, Open Source has grown in its impact on the Salesian world (as indeed it has grown in its impact on the world generally). Two major continental gatherings of Salesians involved in education and communications have made it a major point of discussion. One large Salesian university system (Brazil) has already run an international conference on the question of open source-free software and the world of education, another (Ecuador) is in the planning stages of a similar conference in October of this year. One Salesian national system (India) has adopted a policy stance on the use and promotion of open source in its technical school system - recognised as amongst India's best, and one Salesian on an education board has influenced the State of Tamil Nadu to similarly adopt a policy in favour of open source.  One Salesian has published a book on the subject, which has drawn the attention of a number of leaders in the Open Source field, and has been translated already into Spanish. Divyadaan,  the Journal of Philosophy and Education has published, with permission, one Chapter of that book in its final number for 2007.  The Italian based Volontariato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo (VIS), a Salesian ONG with international clout, has republished 'La Sindrome del Computer Arrugginito' (The Rusty Computer Syndrome) on new technologies in the world's 'South' amidst human development and globalisation, pushing, amongst other things, the notion of open source software as a significant issue for a more just, fair and balanced world.  Why all this,  (apart from the lead given by the Rector Major who spoke directly to the matter in AGC 390)?
    We are increasingly dependent on technology, and it does more than influence our daily computer habits - it influences our ways of thinking about the world and the degree of freedom we can exercise. And if that is true for us, it is true for the young people we minister to, even more so in circumstances of poverty. The basic human freedoms we take for granted are only as free as the technologies we use.
    Any discussion of human rights today cannot ignore the question of technology, and technology is on the one hand driven by software while on the other not instruments but culture. Software is a human artifact.
     Open source promotes transparent, sustainable approaches with immediately evident results, even at the level of the hip pocket.  I haven't paid for software for three years, have not had to worry about upgrade costs, have the most up-to-date and efficient software available and can (and have done so) adapt it to achieve particular results for the fields I work in, which in the end are to the benefit of the Salesian Congregation and hopefully the hundreds of thousands of youngsters it stands for.
    It may be, and this thought is worth pursuing, that Open source, free software (Probably better known as FOSS) is a special way of addressing a human right that has not actually been formally defined - but will need to be: the right to communicate. The 1948 Declaration on Human Rights spoke of 'freedom of expression' but that in a context of a world which had seen horrifying mass media implications and was waking up to 'information'. Now we need to focus on communication processes, one to one, peer to peer, group to group - which today deeply affect human rights. That's where open source comes in.
    For me, and I suggest that for others of us too, the 9th February 2008 is a 10th anniversary worth recalling.  JBF.
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Title: australasia 2055
Subject and key words: SDB General THA Technology Freedom Open Source
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2055