oh! to be free and organic… (on the internet of course)

March 7th, 2007 by gina

as you read this, you are sitting in front of a computer. there is no doubt software on that computer. you may be under the impression that some of that software was free…

and to that end, sure you didn’t necessarily pay for all of your software – but does that really make it free??

this was the question presented to jay and i at the grassroots media conference’s workshop on software freedom and the organic internet. in this awesomely geeky session we listened to a discussion concerning the tools we use in our everyday computer life, remembering that all media makers are effected by tools! a highlight for me was when workshop leader alfredo lopez gave an impassioned speech about the importance of really looking at how we use technology and the implications of what we use

(click on photo for video of awesome alfredo speech, , make sure you wait for it, it’s worth the loading time)


Click To Play

the entire dialogue is recapped here : but below are 2 highlights

____

1) What is free software?

“Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer

Free software is a matter of the users’ freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software.”

  • The freedom to run the program, for any purpose
  • The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs
  • The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor
  • The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits

2) Useful open source programs you can feel good about using

GIMP : Photoshop equivalent

INKSCAPE : Illustrator equivalent

OpenOffice.org – Microsoft Office Replacement

AUDACITY : CrossPlatform Sound Editor

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 2:53 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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1 Comment »

  1. [...] I attended an amazing session on being free and organic on the internet. You should definitely go HERE and take a look at what I learned about free and open source software. There’s a great video [...]

    Pingback by Media Justice and Fun @ the NYC Grassroots Media Conference | TakePart Blog Network — March 3, 2008 @ 11:41 am

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