On Wednesday, Oct 26, 2005, Taran Rampersad wrote: > Anything that creates a trade subsidy to give the illusion of > development is a farce. That includes, generally speaking, both FOSS and > proprietary software - and yes, some FOSS is a trade subsidy for > developing nations as well. The FOSS I advocate is not, but then again - > it's not 'popular'. As the former Editor for LinuxGazette.com (which SSC > has let go down the toilet), as a former 'Community Facilitator' for SSC > - I can tell you that the focus is on selling people 'stuff' - not only > software companies (FOSS and proprietary), but the media that represents > them. Advertisers pay the bills, advertisers sell hardware and software, > if you want to make money you have to keep the advertisers happy. That's > business, and there is no getting around that. Or is there?
So how would you characterize the perennial net outflow of cash from the less developed world to the so-called civilized world? It looks like a subsidy to me. One that occurs over quite a number of centuries. I think it is overdue for a reversal. The problem with reversal is that a lot of entrenched interests will lose if that happens. So we run into all the structural issues like a wave breaking upon a rock. > Development isn't too 'popular' either. Maybe we have too many marketers > in 'Development' and not enough people doing things. In fact, I believe > that right now this is the case. The things which require effort to use > are being cast aside for things that are easier to use - but there is a > tradeoff. There is always a tradeoff. A lot of us sit around and only > communicate with others who are interested in technology. We preach to > the choir. Development means different things depending on where you look at it from. A lot of folks would think that they are part of development and hoping to help people who need it. Ask the same people who need it whether or not any development is happening and they will tell you, NO. I think Clare Short said it best when reacting to protests at a G8 summit. She wondered why a bunch of white people from rich countries were claiming to represent the world's poor. In the development community, we from the less developed countries are not adequately represented, we don't make decisions, and we don't get paid expat salaries either. > It's not just FOSS, either. Renewable energy, open hardware, open > CONTENT... It goes way beyond FOSS. It goes to the heart of everything. People have whole industries based on helping us, and those industries are super profitable because we don't get help. The money disappears. Recently, there was a post on FOSS and NGOs happening in Africa. NGOs are involved because the sponsoring NGO thinks so. Do we need FOSS in NGOs or do we need training of our developers and attention paid to them? Who should be surprised when it all fails, just as it is happening now? -- G. ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
