[okfn-discuss] [FC-discuss] A Free, Libre and Open Glossary

Wed Jul 10 04:25:29 UTC 2013

If the intent of this document is to have something that the general public can read to better understand open and free, I'd start it differently, with a brief intro at the beginning to explain what this is all about. Something like:

(title) What is free or open knowledge?

There are a whole lot of things on the web, like software, papers, reports, data, artworks, etc, that are "free" to use, or "open" knowledge. There are a whole lot of other terms used to describe free or open knowledge, such as "permissive", "copyleft", "libre", "FLO" and "FLOSS". This glossary explains what all those terms mean, and also explains what you need to know to understand appropriate use of "open" or "free" knowledge.

Also, just to comment "However, most of the terms are synonymous (free software and open source software)". Free software is not really synonymous with open source software. Free software is software that is free to use, regardless of whether it is open source or not. There is plenty of free to use software that is not open source.

Thanks

Gene

________________________________
 From: Chris Sakkas <sanglorian at gmail.com>
To: Discussion of Free Culture in general and this organization in particular <discuss at freeculture.org>; Open Knowledge Foundation discussion list <okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, July 9, 2013 10:22 PM
Subject: Re: [okfn-discuss] [FC-discuss] A Free, Libre and Open Glossary

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I haven't had the time to incorporate it or respond to it, and I won't for another day or so - but in the meantime I've transferred the document over to OK Pad so you can edit and comment freely and openly:

http://okfnpad.org/UEVd4jV2cB

Formatting leaves something to be desired, but all the text is there.

Cheers,
Chris

Chris Sakkas
Admin of the FOSsil Bank wiki and the Living Libre blog and Twitter feed.
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