I often complain about the lack of understanding of Vietnamese official about IPR, trademark, Free and Open Source Software or how-to collaborate through code sharing. I was very glad to see the OpenLab in Ho Chi Minh City organizing a video conference with Mark Shuttleworth last friday. We had the pleasure to talk with him for at least one hour and a half. The subject revolved around Open Document Format, MS Open XML and ISO. And Ubuntu, how to start creating services. You can read another report about the story here.
The great thing about this video conference with Mark Shuttleworth, is the fact that he spend a great deal of time to explain how to contribute and what is the benefit of contribution to a linux distribution such as Ubuntu. He also gave a good lecture about the nature of open standard and the ISO process of voting for standards were great. After the conference people stayed there and talk about various subject.
However the questions he received about Ubuntu and linux were showing how ignorant “those” important people are about FOSS business model and more over how to adapt them to Vietnam. Normally they should prepare themselves to meet that kind of people. However I had the feeling they were not ready. For example, some insisted on how to make money with Open Source, even after Mark explain the three main way (there’s probably other models, but that’s for future discussion) :
a) Create software and get paid for it, sell it in dual license mode
b) Service software (installation, customization, debugging, upgrade, configuration etc)
c) Combine various FOSS application and create packages to fit specific needs
They kept asking “How to make money?” (either because they didn’t pay attention to the answer or the answer was not what they expected). They showed their ignorance of the GPL basic terms, free does not mean “gratis” but freedom, including the one to sell it. Here are some advice to future participants :
- Stop asking how to contribute with Ubuntu, read the documentation and go on the launchpad but before read “How-to participate” and try to understand the ubuntu community code of conduct.
- Stop talking about “open source” only and talk about “freedom software” “free and open source software” Free does not mean cheap or gratis, it means freedom, freedom to give it for free or to make money. You can sell the ubuntu CD and it is legal, please read the GPL to see that you can do it
- The easiest way to start making money is to sell services, yes, and vietnam need a lot of services because most people don’t even know how to use a word processor or connect to a network, or install a server, or for instance what is a server. So if you have a little bit of knowledge, start selling it.
- You don’t need another linux distribution call VietnamLinux or OpenVietbuntu to make money, it is too long, it is definitively stupid to reinvent the wheel again. Have you check recently how many distribution are in “distrowatch” who needs another linux distribution ?
- You don’t need to create a new forum (after Mark was gone they decided to create a new forum) there’s already several forums in vietnamese in vietnam, there’s already too much website in the world to really enjoy them all (but this idea is not bad if we really think before doing it, we can create a very good place for people in need of information, however managing a forum is no small job, and good forums take a lot of energy to manage)
- The real reason to use GNU/linux is because it promotes freedom and more freedom means more competition, Proprietary software is against competition and is shortening my choice, that’s why I’m using GNU / Linux
Now you know where I’m standing, I stand for more choice in the life of everyone, I want to see more people having access to the wealth of information that the humanity is producing. I want to see people taking their life in their own hand. You can’t do it without freedom. So mister officials, stop wandering around money making (in fact you already have a job so you should not care about making money) and pronounce policies that enable common standards and better competition.
Finally I want to say, that I enjoyed 95% of the Video Conference, notwithstanding my grumpy mood…
Comments 6
Personally, “Freedom Software” doesn’t cut it with me. Sounds too awkward. It’s too English-only in its reading and it excludes open-source, which is inclusive of what Richard M Stallman still wants us all to call, ambiguously, “Free Software”.
I debated this with Richard a few years back and have thought about it thousands of times since. I remain attached to a notion that, if you want something short, clear and meaningful, “Freed” is better than “Free”. And i’m glad to see the maker of the new openmoko phone have adopted this label, too.
However, in respect to RMS, i don’t generally use it. Instead, to get beyond the issues above and offer a name that allows more marketing play and also encompasses the new freed and open-source communities beyond software, like texts, music and radio, i’ve gone with “the FLO”, or simply Free, [Libre|Linux] & Open-source.
To get beyond mere technology and not exclude users and their content, simply say “FLO IT/IS”, ie, FLO Info’ Tech’ OR Info’ Systems.
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 9:06 pm ¶I don’t like the “free software” expression because it gives flank to mis-understanding. I keep using it because adding another acronym maybe more confusing
In fact the problem is with the english language, in other languages, french or spanish we say “libre”, in Hindi “swatantra” (liberal), vietnamese “tu do” (freedom)
I’m wondering why no one is using “liberty” instead of freedom
Posted 11 Jul 2007 at 7:37 am ¶Ya, the problem is definitely with the ambiguity of “free” in English.
“Liberal” and “liberty” are possibilities but longish, like “freedom”, and, like “freedom” again, both are so strongly tied to enduring political propaganda their basic, root meanings would be easily lost or perverted in day-to-day media spin.
“Freed” has the advantages of adding only one character in length, many positive connotations to convey or play with from a marketing angle and greater accuracy in describing the actual legal process and situation of Free/Libre software than even the word “free” does.
When the latter point was put to RMS, he argued, not very convincingly that Free Software is born free while somewhat conspicuously ignoring the counterpoint made that current copyright laws in most countries have long awarded fully restrictive copyrights to every author upon the initial creation of a work, without the author needing to explicitly claim, declare or apply for those rights — to prevent copying without the approval of the original author, the identity of whom would be decided in court.
The implication is that until an original author explicitly applies a specific FLO license, the work is not yet free, in the FLO sense of that word. It must be explicitly *freed* by its author before it becomes a legal work within of the world’s stock of FLO works.
That process is spelled out in more detail in CopyLeft explanation on the GNU/FSF sites. It is how FLO works.
Get the marketing angle? Eg:
Posted 12 Jul 2007 at 9:21 pm ¶* Go with the FLO. (cf modern English idiom “Go with the flow.” “The flow” being like “the Force” in Starwars.)
* FLO works (a pun allowing both the noun and verb forms of “works”)
* etc, etc…
Oh ya. FLO is in fact not really a new acronym. It simply (1) uses the more current convention of writing “opensource” instead of “open source” as two words and (2) it divorces Free/Libre/Opensource from the old acronym created by the Indian guy who did the study for the European research group some years ago, ie, “FLOSS”.
While “FLOSS” already sucks from a marketing perspective, since it reminds one of the stuff you use to clean plaque and other gunk from between your teeth, once “opensource” is used, FLOSS becomes “FLOS”, which of course would be pronounced like “flaws”. Ouch.
“FOSS” isn’t much better since it sounds too much like the name of a red-neck hillbilly or a cowboy, like “Hoss” (cowboy for “horse”).
Btw, “OSS” was the old acronym of the “CIA” up until the USA’s earliest involvement in their Vietnam conflict.
Posted 12 Jul 2007 at 9:36 pm ¶FLOSS is definitively a no go, I have to agree that freed seem a nice alternative, once we know if a “free software” can be born already free or if as you put it must be freed before.
You seem to associate freedom with a political agenda, something that has been abuse in the USA, Freedom here, freedom there, freedom fries etc. While people were shouting freedom after 9/11, United-statesian (americans - but I’m also an american but not from the US) didn’t notice the continuous removal of those civil liberties. Freedom is also the flag of the libertarian in the US, a bunch of people who are a bit reluctant to share their freedom with other espcially the poorest.
There’s a political agenda in Freed software, but it is positionning itself in between several frontier that were not crossed in normal politic.
- it is “communistic” because it the product of the work is shared according to the need
- it is “liberal” because it is the responsability of the individual to enforce the freedom
- it is “imperialist” because it tends to spread over everything it touch
- it is “autoritarian” because it tend to promote the leadership of few, sometimes even one
- it is “democratic” because everyone can use it
- it is “socialisitc” because it does not fight against profit, in fact it has provision so people can make profit over a good created by a community
In the rest of the world, outside the US, freedom has still a meaning, I have not yet given up on it …
Posted 13 Jul 2007 at 9:41 am ¶What’s the meaning of “freedom” in Viet Nam?
Anyway, it seems i might have some significant support now. And i quote:
Freedel is now freed.in! - New Delhi 2007 - September 28-29
freed.in, http://freed.in/, isn’t just a Linux conference. It is a technical conference about Free Software and related topics, held annually in New Delhi. We invite submissions on any Free Software related subject; from Linux and the BSDs to OpenOffice.org, from networking to audio-visual magic, from deep hacks to Creative Commons.
Posted 18 Jul 2007 at 3:38 pm ¶Post a Comment