Comments about “Free Software/Free Science” by Christopher M. Kelty.
Many people think about why computer programmers, generally called Hackers, upload their software applications to the Internet, let alone why they are releasing their software over the GNU/GPL(1). Christopher M. Kelty talks about capitalism in the real word, when he says that the principal question about Open Source Software is How do you make money with free software?.
The actual society says that you have to use your knowledge, abilities and experience in order to get money. Money, Money.........Money. But there are a lot of people that do that they do in order to establish a good reputation in a community. Rowers want to win a medal, Researchers want to discover something and Hackers want to be the best programmer or at least a important programmer in the open source community. The reputation is comparable to science reputation.
Generally we think that something free is bad or have a poor quality because is free. However in academic environment this is not a fact. Science is free for audit, open source too. If we do not have the opportunity to audit an scientific process, then this process is not considered a scientific fact.
Open source software is not science, it is a part of science. It was developed in academic research, from Richard Stallman(2) to Linus Torvalds(3). The open source software is a part of computer science. Open source is open to audit, We can see inside the algorithms, We can follow a methodology and basically is considered a universal knowledge.
In order to compare science and open source, the author talks about how do you make money with science?. After that the author talks about the fundamentals of Intellectual Property. Actually here in El Salvador we have problems educating the people about intellectual property and pirated. All the time the open source software community says that the best form of eliminate piraterism is using free software. Unfortunately the universities in El Salvador do not consider the use of free software such a serious proposal.
Open science and open source have tree principal implication:
I.Intellectual property is the only way for protect open science. Free software foundation made the GPL. GPL is based on Intellectual property concept and directives, the main objective of GPL is protect technology from many commercial purposes.
II.Generally open science is “publically visible private owned knowledge”(4). Actually the race is for discover or create a new technology because this enable the researcher or company the possibility to patent.
III.Internet has become the principal method to publish new knowledge, based on the knowledge community.
Open source society and scientific society know that citation index is important because other researchers can use references for previous investigations. Here in El Salvador, people ought to be motivated to use citation index, citation index is important in order to educate people for Intellectual property respect.
In conclusion Mr. Kelty compares money with reputation, both are a valid methods of payment, the firth one for economy, an reputation for science. Money teaches us how to count, science teaches us how to think. Implications in education are visible, science and open source software can help the actual society giving us new public knowledge based on Intellectual property, this knowledge is transferred from open source community (generally in first word countries), to people in third word countries.
FootNotes:
1- GNU/GPL, GNU is Not Unix, General Public License.
2- Richard Stallman, MIT, GNU and FSF founder.
3- Linus Torvalds, GNU/LINUX original developer.
4- Mr. Kelty's definition.
References:
- Free Software / Free Science , Chritopher M. Kelty, available online at http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_12/kelty/index.html
The actual society says that you have to use your knowledge, abilities and experience in order to get money. Money, Money.........Money. But there are a lot of people that do that they do in order to establish a good reputation in a community. Rowers want to win a medal, Researchers want to discover something and Hackers want to be the best programmer or at least a important programmer in the open source community. The reputation is comparable to science reputation.
Generally we think that something free is bad or have a poor quality because is free. However in academic environment this is not a fact. Science is free for audit, open source too. If we do not have the opportunity to audit an scientific process, then this process is not considered a scientific fact.
Open source software is not science, it is a part of science. It was developed in academic research, from Richard Stallman(2) to Linus Torvalds(3). The open source software is a part of computer science. Open source is open to audit, We can see inside the algorithms, We can follow a methodology and basically is considered a universal knowledge.
In order to compare science and open source, the author talks about how do you make money with science?. After that the author talks about the fundamentals of Intellectual Property. Actually here in El Salvador we have problems educating the people about intellectual property and pirated. All the time the open source software community says that the best form of eliminate piraterism is using free software. Unfortunately the universities in El Salvador do not consider the use of free software such a serious proposal.
Open science and open source have tree principal implication:
I.Intellectual property is the only way for protect open science. Free software foundation made the GPL. GPL is based on Intellectual property concept and directives, the main objective of GPL is protect technology from many commercial purposes.
II.Generally open science is “publically visible private owned knowledge”(4). Actually the race is for discover or create a new technology because this enable the researcher or company the possibility to patent.
III.Internet has become the principal method to publish new knowledge, based on the knowledge community.
Open source society and scientific society know that citation index is important because other researchers can use references for previous investigations. Here in El Salvador, people ought to be motivated to use citation index, citation index is important in order to educate people for Intellectual property respect.
In conclusion Mr. Kelty compares money with reputation, both are a valid methods of payment, the firth one for economy, an reputation for science. Money teaches us how to count, science teaches us how to think. Implications in education are visible, science and open source software can help the actual society giving us new public knowledge based on Intellectual property, this knowledge is transferred from open source community (generally in first word countries), to people in third word countries.
FootNotes:
1- GNU/GPL, GNU is Not Unix, General Public License.
2- Richard Stallman, MIT, GNU and FSF founder.
3- Linus Torvalds, GNU/LINUX original developer.
4- Mr. Kelty's definition.
References:
- Free Software / Free Science , Chritopher M. Kelty, available online at http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_12/kelty/index.html
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