[okfn-help] "Open Knowledge Foundation" in other languages / Free vs. Open

Sat Nov 5 05:26:25 UTC 2011

Hi,

since a Brazilian chapter is in progress, [1] I was wondering how it
should be called in Portuguese and for this I also want understand
better the reason for using "open" instead of "free". I asked this to
Rufus a few months ago here in Brasil and, if I understood correctly,
the main reason for using open if because of the English ambiguity
with the word "free" (you always have to explain: free as in freedom,
not as in free beer). In Portuguese we don't have such ambiguity and
the word "livre" (= "free") is related to "liberdade" (= "freedom"),
so it sounds better, in my opinion, when I say "conhecimento livre" (=
"free knowledge"), instead of "conhecimento aberto" (= "open
knowledge").

Have the members of the other chapters <http://wiki.okfn.org/Chapters>
discussed about this? Which name are you using in your own language? I
believe here in Brazil, where only a few people speak Portuguese, it
will be more convenient to have a Portuguese name for "Open Knowledge
Foundation" - I was thinking about "Fundação do Conhecimento Livre",
but a friend just suggested a better one "Fundação pelo Conhecimento
Livre", although this should be discussed soon with the Brazilian
community to agree on a name. Would be a problem to use the word
"livre" instead of "aberto"?

In cases such as a press release, I think it is proper to have the
English name together with the mother tongue chapter name.

I am also trying to see if I can find substantial differences between
these two definitions:

http://freedomdefined.org/Definition

http://opendefinition.org/okd/

Naively speaking in term of Creative Commons (CC) licenses, both only
accept as open/free knowledge when the data/content/information is
under a CC-by, CC-by-SA licenses or less restrictions, so both matches
each other in this sense. Could someone point out important
differences other than the names if I am not seeing?

Maybe the issue "Open vs. Free" could be on OKFn FAQ
<http://okfn.org/about/faq/> and the chapter question on the chapter
instructions.

Cheers,

Tom

[1] http://wiki.okfn.org/Brazil