Re: [OS:N:] Re: Open Source in Schools and then some

[Jeremy Hogan <jhogan redhat com>]

> Sociological change? Give me a break.
> 
> Open source is a Really Neat Thing, and can cause some major upheavals in
> the future in the way software is produced and distributed, but as
> societal change goes it's a non-issue. Spend some time at a local food
> bank or womens' shelter, extolling the wonders of open source and how it
> will liberate people, and see how far you get.
> 

Sociological change can affect many things and still not touch things
like famine and domestic abuse. However, go into those places and tell
them the State can have more money to grant them, that their own
infrastructure does not have to eat as much of their budget, then heads
will turn. Changing the face of the argument for the sake of the
audience does not narrow the larger case. 

When's the last time a technology methodology or license caused a major
world government (or several for that matter) to extoll/enact it's use
into law?

There is the base productivity issue pertaining to computers, but then
there is the fact that OpenSource has, and will continue to change the
world in ways far beyond technology. No less significantly than the use
of forged metal or the invention of the car. 

Sociological change is at the heart of Open Source NOW as much as
practicality. Hence legislative lobbying interests. Those efforts have
far less impact on OSS as a license, than on the fundamental changes
needed to traditional copyright, patent and IP rights and laws. All
issues of great social importance.

--jeremy