[Marxism] Venezuela and Open Source

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/newswire/display/92/index.php

From Venezuela to Cyprus - Self-sufficiency, Free software and the Revolution

The revolutionary process unfolding in Venezuela has taken on new
dimensions, rendering the anti-imperialist concept of economic and
technological self-sufficiency directly relevant to the electronic and
digital realities of the 21st century.

Information from various sources is confirming that the Government of
Venezuela has intensified a campaign of transition of all its computer
operations to free, open- source software. {Sources for more reading
materials on this and related themes are listed below}.

This present move being actualized in Venezuela is in harmony with the
orientation and praxis of some of the most radical sections and wings of
the Liberation Movement active in countries of the West (US and Western
Europe).

In the West hundreds of networks of Anarchists, Anarcho-Communists,
Feminist and Ecology- minded Socialists have been operating facilities of
the Liberation Movement, organizational tools and community communications,
educational, creative and entertainment services all based on open- source
free software. The applications for political and social organizations
which benefit from these radical applications of "politicized software"
include email lists, webservers, open publishing tools, data storage,
cryptography and many other computer functions. Most crucial, they include
functions as basic as computer operating systems. (Microsoft's "windows" is
a privately owned, patented operating system which is familiar to most
people. Open source operating systems are evolving which are better, more
efficient and more secure, such as Linux).

All these politicized community computer services mentioned above are
operated through software that is developed, applied, and distributed
outside of the ownership and control systems of Corporate power. All of
IndyMedia's branches, local and global, including Cyprus IndyMedia, operate
on those principles as well.

This kind of software is often referred to by several names with
overlapping meanings. The names emphasize various aspects of what "Free"
means: Open Source; Free, Non-proprietary, etc. "Free" in these frames of
reference does not refer only to their price (which very often is zero).
More important than price, "Free" refers to free from Corporate ownership.

Open- source free software packages are collective works, the condensed
labour of many people who co-operate to contribute to their development.
Also, an important part of the labour is aimed at ensuring that the work is
made available to the public and that the ownership rights of the work
remain in the public domain.

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