Open Source v. MS - American Prospect article

["Nathan Newman" <nathan.newman@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

I mentioned to folks earlier that I had an article on the history and role
of government promoting open source software appearing in THE AMERICAN
PROSPECT.  I am including a quick release on it with URLs.  There is also a
roundtable on the issues involved, where they put me in with two
libertarians (Eric Raymond and a REASON magazine guy) along with a corporate
technology lawyer, so if folks have any thoughts for the next round of
comments I have to submit by Monday, it would be appreciated.

Thanks -- Nathan Newman

-----------

In this month's special issue by THE AMERICAN PROSPECT on "After Microsoft:
The Open Source Society", former NetAction staffer Nathan Newman has an
article "Storming the Gates" on the history of open source software and its
challenge to Microsoft.  The article is located at
http://www.prospect.org/archives/V11-10/newman-n.html  This is part of a
general set of articles in the current magazine discussing Open Source and
other technology issues.

Based on his longer NetAction report "The Origins and Future of Open Source
Software: A NetAction White Paper" at http://netaction.org/opensrc/future/,
Newman's article addresses the public policy implications of open source
software as an alternative to Microsoft.  Noting the often overlooked
history of government policy's promotion of free and open source code
software in building the Internet, his article highlights the need for the
federal government to combine its antitrust restrictions on Microsoft with
positive support for an open source alternative.

As well, THE AMERICAN PROSPECT has convened an online roundtable to discuss
Nathan Newman's article and others in the issue, including Newman himself,
open source advocate Eric Raymond, REASON magazine's Jeff Taylor, and
technology lawyer Jonathan Band.  The roundtable is at
http://www.prospect.org/controversy/open_source/