Opinions

opinions

Free software to produce art: let’s be pragmatic

I have my kids to blame, that is certain. There I was, last Christmas, in this auditorium, listening to the crunching of popcorn from my son on my left, and the slurping of soda from my daughter on th ...

by Edward Macnaghten – 8/15/2005

opinions

Remix culture

The free culture movement is growing, from its inception in the free software movement to the relatively recent establishment of Creative Commons. Across the world, localised teams are adapting CC lic ...

by Tom Chance – 8/15/2005

opinions

Guerrilla marketing

Interviews are a mainstay of the media. For journalists, they’re an excellent way to check facts, get some nice quotes or structure an article. For free software projects looking for coverage, they’re ...

by Tom Chance – 8/14/2005

opinions

Art, creativity, intellectual property and the commons

Let us begin with a story about art. In this story, art produces aesthetic works of durability and stability — things that “stand up on their own”. The act of artistic production doesn’t come from now ...

by David Berry – 8/12/2005

opinions

Free software and digital rights management

In recent years, digital rights management technology (DRM) has become an important issue to free software users and developers. Free software users first experienced this issue when they discovered t ...

by Chris Karr – 8/2/2005

opinions

Why I’m not a programmer today

My exposure to computers began at about the age of seven. This was probably mostly thanks to my grandfather being a member of the New Zealand Computing Society and my father always being keen on the l ...

by Dave Guard – 7/18/2005

opinions

Letters

# Inaccuracies in “Promoting free software on non-free platforms” Dear FSM, Chris J. Karr’s article, “Promoting free software on non-free platforms” makes several mistakes which I feel deserve a respo ...

by Tony Mobily – 7/17/2005

opinions

On the “Creative Commons”: a critique of the commons without commonalty

On the face of it, the Creative Commons project appears to be a success. It has generated interest in the issue of intellectual property and the erosion of the “public domain”, and it has contributed ...

by David Berry – 7/15/2005

opinions

The future of computing: is free software ready?

The future is the state of things yet to come. One can only expect what may happen and never know what will happen. The future can only be predicted based on past experience. The predictions differ ba ...

by Kaustubh Ghosh – 7/14/2005

opinions

Free software 2.0

Free software (and open source) license models have become the most influential force in business IT to date. The first part of this article presents a brief history of free software, combined with th ...

by Nathaniel Palmer – 7/13/2005

opinions

The social implications of free software

If you’re new to it, free software appears to be tough to shift to. It also tends to be supported by a smaller pool of techies, and has something of a steep initial learning-curve. So why shift at all ...

by Frederick Noronha – 6/9/2005

opinions

Free software: working together

Small companies often have to work together; however, nobody wants the headache of contracts, failed promises or deception. Free software allows small companies to work together without these risks, a ...

by Albert Witteveen – 5/21/2005

opinions

Enough is enough

I am upset. If you write quite a bit, you learn a rule: you must never, ever write when you are upset. In such a state, clarity simply goes out the window and what you think is a masterpiece turns out ...

by Tony Mobily – 5/10/2005

opinions

The risk of using proprietary software

About one out of every 200 people is allergic to peanuts. Depending on the extremity of the allergy, a person suffering from peanut allergies who was accidentally exposed to peanuts might develop an i ...

by Matt Barton – 5/7/2005

opinions

The risks of writing proprietary software

Every software developer faces a choice when deciding how to release a new software product. That choice is whether the program will be free or non-free. Unfortunately, many otherwise knowledgeable pr ...

by Matt Barton – 5/5/2005

opinions

What is the next (r)evolution?

I’m not sure if it’s correct to talk about the internet as a revolution. The internet is in fact the result of a slow, hard earned evolution which has lasted about 30 years (!). Slowly, during these y ...

by Tony Mobily – 5/1/2005

opinions

Richard Stallman’s blog

# Response to Fox News Article (January 31, 2005) Jim Prendergast’s recent article mistakenly called me a “leader in the open source community”. While I appreciate the praise that might be read into t ...

by Richard Stallman – 4/27/2005

opinions

Free as in “free speech” or free as in “free labour”?

Free software sustains and enables the internet. Across the world, people continue to freely contribute ideas and expertise to an important and growing movement. The internet itself was largely born o ...

by David Berry – 4/25/2005

opinions

Free software gets small

When Clayton Christensen talks, CEOs listen. Christensen is a Harvard School of Business Associate Professor who has CEOs re-thinking their growth strategies with his concept of disruptive technologie ...

by Christian Einfeldt – 4/23/2005

opinions

Open source is a market force

Companies seek to counter their competition in a variety of ways - pricing, packaging, branding, etc. There are a lot of options and any good product manager will know them well. One of the toughest s ...

by Malcolm Spence – 4/21/2005