Is Free and Open Code a Form of Infrastructure? How About the Humans Who Write It?

“I was looking at what my friend Stephen Lewis wrote in
HakPakSak a few days ago–specifically newspapers’ roles as public
trusts and cornerstones of our informational infrastructure–i.e.,
sources of solid information and independent commentary essential
to informed citizenry, democratic government, effective public
policy, and well-functioning economies. What this brought up for me
is the notion that human beings are themselves infrastructural;
especially when they are constructive contributors to the structure
we call civilization.

“Here in the free software and open source (FOSS) worlds, we’re
used to making, and employing, building materials that are products
of human mentation…”

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