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

Wed Jul 10 12:58:24 UTC 2013

We could maybe adopt the terms in spanish as a standard

- libre = open = Free to modify

- gratis = free of charge

Javi

El 10/07/2013, a las 14:55, Gene Shackman <eval_gene at yahoo.com> escribió:

"Free Software is NOT simply free to use. "Free Software" as defined by the
... Free Software Foundation"gets a lit

Well, this is where it gets sort of complex. To folks in the open knowledge
movement, "free" has a specific meaning, as Aaron indicated. It means free
to use, modify, share.  To folks in the general public, "free" likely means
free of charge, and free to use. It does not necessarily include free to
modify. Some examples are these packages, which are "free" to use, but not
"free" to modify:

Epi Info http://wwwn.cdc.gov/epiinfo/
MicOsiris http://www.microsiris.com/ (a statistical program)
TextSTAT http://neon.niederlandistik.fu-berlin.de/en/textstat/ (a word
analysis program)
Tableau public  http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/ (data visualization.
As far as I can tell, this is free of charge but not open)

Thus, some general statement at the beginning of a glossary would be
helpful, to explain what "free" means. So here is a modified opening
statement.

(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. But
"free" and "open" have specific meaning, often different from what the
general public understands. For example, in many definitions of "free",
software has to be free to use, AND free to modify (e.g., "open"). The
source code has to be available, and open to modification by anyone.
Without those conditions, the software is not "free", but is just "free of
charge".  This glossary explains the specific meaning of "free" and "open"
and related terms, and explains what you need to know to understand
appropriate use of "open" or "free" knowledge.

Gene

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