Well, there are some folks (Richard Stallman) who would say that "Open" has not degraded at all, in that the initial focus of it when applied to technology 15 years ago was *specifically* to undermine his ethical message about freedom.
I had been using the OKF as my go-to example of why "Open" can be used by organizations that really do care about social values, politics, and ethics. I hope I can continue to do so, but taking political positions isn't always comfortable and the OKF has been shying away from boldness here lately. I see push-back and real listening, so we'll see… At any rate, I call on the "Open Knowledge" community and organization to keep this in mind: Do not fall into the "Free vs Open" silly debate by letting "Open" become a neutralized term! Push for "Open" to really matter and to be about respecting civil liberties and democracy! Cheers, Aaron -- Aaron Wolf wolftune.com On Sat, Jun 7, 2014 at 4:20 AM, Peter Murray-Rust <[email protected]> wrote: > Part of the problem is the use of the term "Open API" (and within it the > concept "Open"). I've had robust discussions with software manufacturers > about this. Companies paid for a black-box system and developers wanted to > hack it - so they "Open"ed the API. I have seen "Open APIs" whose T&Cs > include "this API is confidential information ..." > > The word "Open" is now so degraded in normal use that in OK/F we have a > major challenge finding a way of reasserting the key concept - "free to > use, re-use, and re-distribute" (to which we now have to add "freedom from > spying"). We find this everywhere "Fully Open Access - until December. You > may not copy, print, or redistribute this material ..." > > So if Tim O'Reilly had used a term like "publicly documented APIs of > unclear duration or re-usability" that would have been reasonably accurate. > > > > > > -- > Peter Murray-Rust > Reader in Molecular Informatics > Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry > University of Cambridge > CB2 1EW, UK > +44-1223-763069 > > _______________________________________________ > okfn-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss > Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss > >
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