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

[Aaron Wolf]

Gene, you're mistaken. Free Software is NOT simply free to use. "Free
Software" as defined by the Free Software Definition a la the Free Software
Foundation is free to use, modify, and to share. If any of those freedoms
are missing, it is non-free. Thus, source MUST be open or there is no way
to freely modify. All Free Software is Open Source. The terms only describe
a different set of values, regarding whether the focus is freedom or is the
development process.

Of course, you may be using "free software" to mean "gratis software" and
then even the use may be restricted in some ways but it is free *of charge*.
This is the essence of the problem with these words. And it is why, in my
opinion, we cannot stick to "free" as the only term. It has nothing to do
with the philosophical issues, it is simply the case that "free" on its own
is hopelessly and forever confusing to most people in most contexts related
to software freedom.

Anyway, I've finally looked at this. My overall feeling is that it belongs
on a wiki instead of an Etherpad. It should should be an effort to
incorporate this into Wikipedia.

Otherwise, I've already been working on similar stuff myself. See
https://snowdrift.coop/w/free-libre-open

I strongly support this overall movement to embrace the broad acronym FLO
as the main unambiguous term. We're running with that at Snowdrift.coop,
and we also have a glossary in progress. Our pages are in fact wiki pages
already but our wiki system isn't quite ready for real public use yet due
to some technical work yet to do and the need for formal terms of use.
We're getting there. Anyone who wants to help, please let me know.

Cheers,
Aaron

--
Aaron Wolf
wolftune.com


On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 9:25 PM, Gene Shackman <eval_gene at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 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 <http://fossilbank.wikidot.com/> and the Living
> Libre blog <http://www.livinglibre.com/> and Twitter feed<https://twitter.com/#%21/living_libre>
> .*
>
>
>
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