Kamaleshwar Morjal [कमलेश्वर मोरजाल] wrote:
On 10/18/07, Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 03:07:22 +0530, Unknown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
I beg to differ. Snorting cocaine also gives a short term
feeling of energy and creativity, but is detrimental in the long run.
Conspiring with software hoarders, who hoard software and knowledge for
profit, and buying the cool-aid, is not of any long term utility.
Agreed. _No long term utility_! The value and wealth of knowledge might
eventually get lost in the long run. But going by that philosophy, people
should start teaching their kids at home because all educational institutes,
coaching institutes, private tuitions, schools even, are also
amongst those who sell knowledge, charge a fortune to teach a kid
basic maths and alphabet that can be learnt at home!!!
So. Is sending your kid to school equivalent to *conspiring* with hoarders
of knowledge? [i think yes, coz if you teach your kid upto second grade
and want to get him into the third grade in some school, you don't have
much choice, and i visualize it exactly as using a closed software with
their indiscernible policies and EULAs, but don't we utilize that _service_
from the schools (that are mere vendors today)?]
Hoarding of knowledge means you don't give access to it except on your
terms. Schools and tuition classes follow openly prescribed curriculum
and the text books too are openly available. So the school is only
providing a service that we are well capable of providing, ourselves.
However, today as knowledge gets digitised, it is the software company
that acts as the provider of the tool to access this knowledge. If the
software company uses restrictive practices to prevent everyone from
using the access tools, like charging heavy prices, changing data
formats every year and demanding ransom for opening the locks to the
data, then such practices come under hoarding of knowledge.
Another example of knowledge hoarding would be the pharmaceutical giants
who are sitting on patents for life saving medicines and sell the
medicines at astronomical prices. If they release the details of the
drugs, other companies can make generic versions of it and prices would
be very low, but they don't want that to happen. They are hoarding
knowledge even after knowing that millions could die simply because they
cannot have access to their medicines.
In case of the mechanic, the vehicle itself is open to study and you can
repair it yourself if you study it. And if you don't like one mechanic,
you can go to another. Here there is no restriction on who is allowed to
touch your vehicle except in warranty. The only way hoarding of
knowledge may take place is if the vehicle has some sealed black box
parts that can be opened or replaced only by company authorised centres
and they charge a bomb for it or out of the blue say that the part is no
longer available and that's the end of the journey for that vehicle.
--
Regards,
Rony.
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