Hi Nikos, these are important issues that are being evaluated and re-evaluated all the time. If your university library has it, then this publication might be an interesting read for you:
Joseph Feller (ed): Perspectives on Open Source Software (MIT Press 2005). It looks into pretty much all the questions you have posted here. Best, Ben Nikos Alexandris wrote: > Dear all, > > it's a full month that I stopped following actively the grass-user (and > other foss4g) list(s). I am back and now, hopefully, more dynamic, more > and more involved as an end-user and perhaps with limited advanced > contributions. > > I started following the list(s) in October 2007 (with a question about > "fonts" [1] and) with "MORE questions" (November 2007 [2]) and the > statement "I know that I only have questions (and a lot). Hope this will > change in time...". > > I still have questions :-). And I'll always do. Although I feel that I > didn't do enough, I tried to put a small piece of grain in this piece of > Art named GRASS-GIS and maybe less in other foss4g projects. > > I feel happy and satisfied that this period (October 2007 - November > 2008) was so fruitful from the perspective of gaining knowledge and > experiences in the field of GIS as never before in my life. > > It was also my intention to kind of celebrate it somehow last December > (2008)... (oh, I always have my crazy ideas:-). But I had to drop them > and concentrate to the political situation back home in Greece. > > We only then wake-up when we see (literally and metaphorically) fires > burning our home. We are blinded and cannot see what is happening the > last 4 decades and more which lead in today's fires. Not only in my > country but on a global scale. > > The values of transparency and meritocracy that are trying to be > realised in the foss4g projects kept me working with foss4g all this > time and I cannot think alternatives for the moment. Those two important > values are absent today, in many dimensions of the wide real world. > > I even started to parallelize, keeping of course in mind the enormous > difference between a socio-political and a foss(4g) organisation scheme, > the open-source concept by putting basic *political* questions with > respect to Democracy (here I mean real/ideal Democracy and not today's > pseudo-Democracy). > > (I understand politics as the right to express freely my thoughts and > more important to be free to doubt directly and the established system > at any time.) > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Questions like: > > What makes a person a member in the GRASS-GIS community for example? The > subscription in a mailing-list? Programing and/or bug-hunting? Donating > some amount of money in the project? > > Are the foss4g projects really autonomous? Are they really > self-determined? > > Can really a member of a foss4g community doubt anytime any established > "rule"? Can he speak-out anything he considers to be the right way to > go? > > Is there room to improve the fundamental scheme of interaction between > the members of a foss4g community? > > Does really *anybody*, equipped with the basics (a pc, internet access) > have real access to the thesaurus of knowledge accumulated through the > development and use of foss4g? > > What are the effects and the benefits on society? > > How does GRASS-GIS survive? Who cares about it's financial sources, > planning? > > etc. > > What's the situation in the real world? > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > I wish you all a Healthy new year. > > Thank you for this wonderful living community, > Nikos > --- > [1] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-user/2007-October/041690.html > [2] > http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-user/2007-November/041701.html > > _______________________________________________ > grass-user mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-user > > -- Benjamin Ducke Senior Applications Support and Development Officer Oxford Archaeological Unit Limited Janus House Osney Mead OX2 0ES Oxford, U.K. Tel.: ++44 (0)1865 263 800 [email protected] ------ Files attached to this email may be in ISO 26300 format (OASIS Open Document Format). If you have difficulty opening them, please visit http://iso26300.info for more information. _______________________________________________ grass-user mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-user
