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Mike Nolan speaks on winners and losers in FOSS. What open source 'won'? #Fosdem2023 #fosdem

With a link to the slides: bit.ly/3HuJ5QL


Winners and Losers in FOSS

Winners and Losers in FOSS Open Source Has "Won" - Have We? I’m Mike Open@RIT Federation of Humanitarian Technologists OES Scholar of Political Economy of Science and Technology Political Economy is the study of how economic systems and political sys…
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#fosdem #Fosdem2023
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to onrust 🍉

onrust 🍉
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First point of attention: politics and economics of software are (inherently? intimately?) linked #fosdem #fosdem2023
#fosdem #Fosdem2023
in reply to onrust 🍉

onrust 🍉
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Nolan sketches the period 1970s-2000s as one in which free software advocacy gets cast as communism or anarchism. Labels that one should resist? :think_mind_blown:​ #Fosdem2023 #fosdem
#fosdem #Fosdem2023
in reply to onrust 🍉

onrust 🍉
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The period 2000-present characterised as "open source is everywhere". FOSS used in 92% of all apps. People from Microsoft are among the largest contributor group to open source #fosdem
#fosdem
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to onrust 🍉

onrust 🍉
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But hey ... does that mean that open source has 'won'? No, says Nolan. We still have largely no control over the majority of services + platforms that facilitate much of people's daily lives #fosdem
#fosdem
in reply to onrust 🍉

onrust 🍉
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Before we get to the (possible) remedy, some taking stock:

* FOSS today doesn't compete with proprietary, it facilitates it
* Labour of FOSS developers is "increasingly dictated by firms"
* FOSS contributors often have precarious employment, are among the first to be cut (apparently?)

#fosdem

#fosdem
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