By David Bollier–Berkman Center for Internet and Society
“As software and networking technologies rapidly insinuate
themselves into the deepest reaches of American commerce, culture
and governance, the architecture of our democratic society is being
transformed.”
“Within the past year, a number of forces have converged to
suggest the socially constructive potential of software whose
design code can be freely accessed and modified by computer
users.”
“The implications are not just technical but economic, political
and cultural. A new software movement based chiefly on free, open
access to the source code of software, is showing its tremendous
power to fortify user sovereignty in the computing/Internet
marketplace.”
“But the rich latencies of this Internet-facilitated phenomenon
may never develop if a new kind of networking leadership does not
coalesce to assert the important values that can only flourish in
an environment of openness. The user community and many
non-technical constituencies must begin to identify and advance
their strategic interests in open code software. Such a
mobilization of resources is especially needed because many
segments of the software and computer industries seem committed to
containing the expansion of open code software, but, for now, have
not consolidated enough to develop a unified response.”