2011/4/3 Guru गुरु <[email protected]> > Public software is all software that is essential for participating in > the digital society and thus needs to be provided to everyone as an > universal right and entitlement. It includes operating system, text / image > / audio / video editors, email, web browser, search engine, social > networking software etc. It also includes applications used by governments > for interfacing with citizens including public services offered through web > services (such as passports, visas, job applications, school college > examinations etc). Public software needs to be free software, providing > the freedom to use, study, modify and share, to ensure universal access as > well as participation in its creation and modification. > > As in the case of public education or public health, public institutions > are responsible to ensure universal access to public software as well as > support public participation in its creation and sharing. > > Software developed for public service has a unique context and objectives > deriving from those of public service; with its imperative of providing > public goods and ensuring equity and social justice. It is well known that > private and commercial actions have very different context, motives and > considerations than public actions. For instance, the largest possible reach > and diffusion as well as transparency of actions are basic to public > service, which are not necessarily values espoused by private and commercial > players. Thus public software would cater to the requirements of universal > access, transparency and participation. > > Public Software being publicly owned, allows for its free sharing as well > as modification by all. Public Software is thus Free Software. In addition, > public software is also a public good. While Free Software > <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html><http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>requires > the freedoms of the individual user to use, study, share and modify > the source code, in addition to this, public software emphasises its 'public > good' nature and vests on government the responsibility of ensuring that > basic software required for negotiating the digital world is freely > available to all. >
Dear Guru, Just one more clarification is needed Who decides Publicness of Software? ie defining the Term Public Software Since it id defined as the software that usues in Government & public institutions, this question is getting increasingly important In case of Public water or Public health Govt Defines the definition for Publicness In some cases they define it such a manner that, one Publoic water tap in a street may be called as public water , In some other cases water connections to all household will be Public water . Same in the case of Public health. The Publicness and level of Publicness will be defined by Government So my question is this. How the case can be different in Public Software . How governments will accept your definition, even if it is foss friendly How you can address the threat of goverments adapt the term and define the level of publicness as they want ? Such an effort will weaken the ecosystem for FOSS Usually Governments does not have a practice of accepting just NGO definitions of terms . ~ Regards Anivar
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