Headline of the Day
Thursday, June 12 2008
"Communists switch to open-source software"
See here. The open source community has often used "free, as in 'speech,' not as in 'beer' " to describe the true spirit and intent of OSS, so needless to say, communists switching to open source is dripping with irony. This particular deal involving the government of Vietnam begs for a definitional level-set (courtesy of Wikipedia) on the ideology of open source...
Open source is a set of principles and practices that promote access to the design and production of goods and knowledge.
OK, fair enough. But reading further offers a more expansive view...
The open source model of operation can be extended to open source culture in decision making, which allows concurrent input of different agendas, approaches and priorities, in contrast with more centralized models of development such as those typically used in commercial companies...
...or communist governments. Maybe it's unfair to compare Vietnam to North Korea, China, or the former Soviet Union on the basis of openness, but there is most certainly a common denominator connecting those governments, and "open" is not the word that comes to mind.
