Free Software as Part of the Anarchist Toolkit

international | sci-tech | other press Wednesday June 27, 2007 11:05 by Terence

Software direct action.

There is an article with the above title published over on Anarkismo that discusses free software and related activities in terms of what it means for Anarchism. It draws some parallels with previous freebie or volunteer efforts in the past and compares them to today.

Unlike most discussions around changing the future that tend to focus on key political events and ideas, this article presents the case that the mundane acts of writing free software is creating important kinds of awarenesses in people that would otherwise not be politically motivated.

There is of course the real danger that things like 'Net neutrality' will be eliminated by the big telecoms corporations. What this means is at the moment all sites or parts of the network have equal access or priority over others. What the telecoms want to do is basically bring in different pricing depending where on the Internet you are accessing. This has a good chance of destorying it as we know it and consigning the Internet the way Radio went.

In the early days of Radio there were many radio stations and lots of people saw huge opportunity for positive development such as education, culture, democracy and so forth. The powers that be recognised the threat and soon introduced licenses which gave them the control of transmissions. This led directly to the situation today where it is not even considered a radical tool anymore and the vast majority transmit just music with some chit chat and a tiny proportiion of serious analysis, news or discussion.

However the article does not mention this aspect, but it does present the case that the phenomena has drawn up this unique opportunity that should be utilized. And hence we should not allow the Internet to go the way of Radio.

The full article is at: