Software freedom

I've chosen to use the term "software freedom" (when grammatically possible) to refer to the ?free software movement in the ciwiki when possible because it is remarkably unambiguous, and makes it easier to write and think directly about the ways that liberty is experienced and promoted by through software and technology (or not, as the case may be.) The issue of freedom is perhaps the most important consideration in the context of cyborg experience and development.

The field of software freedom is tightly associated with the area ?OpenSource software development. The ?OpenSource page contains a working definition and rational for the distinction between these two connected subjects. Simply put, for the purposes of the ciwiki, ?OpenSource refers to a technology development methodology, where as software freedom refers to the ideological and moral practices of software developers and users who are concerned with technological and digital liberty.

The Free Software Foundation posits four tenets of free software, which are effective as a definition of software freedom itself:

• Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose.

• Freedom 1: The freedom to study and modify the program.

• Freedom 2: The freedom to copy the program so you can help your neighbor.

• Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

I've begun a project in this area called Sygn which aims to create a distributed/aggregated database and social networking tool with the aim of furthering the proliferation of free software.

The central questions regarding software freedom in the context of cyborg awareness are (to my mind):

• How do ?UsersOfFreeSoftware benefit from SoftwareFreedom?

• How does the ?UseOfFreeSoftware impact the ?UsersOfFreeSoftware?

• How does the ?UseOfFreeSoftware affect other cyborg practices and technology, and domains such as ?information management?

Open Source Software Development

I'm very sensitive to the concerts of the Free Software Movement regarding the potential for ambiguity regarding the terms "free software" and "open source software," however for the purposes of organizing research and practice around cyborg experience, the distinction may be useful and productive. ?OpenSource refers to a way of developing software a method for interacting with computers, a mode of cybercultural creation; software freedom ("Free Software") on the other hand refers to a political movement and approach to software (and indeed the ?cyborg encounter itself.) There is of course considerable overlap of interest, personnel, and ideals.

Indeed one of my core interests and reasons for this wiki and the Cyborg Institute itself is an interest in open source development methodologies, tools, and practices. It strikes me that open source promotes--separate from the ideologies of software freedom--a novel method of humans interacting with technology and each other. Open source creates a vehicle for large numbers of people to collaborate and produce coherent, functional products in distributed settings which force us to rethink conventional ideas about "work," "creation," "collaboration," and "authorship."

My intention in establishing this section of the wiki is to provide an avenue to work, collaborate, collect data, and present ongoing work with the aim of figuring out "how open source works." My approach to this work is to center focus on specific ?open source projects, and to collect notes, resources, and analysis regarding specific projects. Projects are diverse, idiosyncratic, and unique, and though I hope that we will be able to draw broader conclusions about ?cyborg issues from this work, I believe it's important for us to collect data and build analysis from that. I hope that the ?projects page will provide a more clear and in-depth explanation of this project.

In addition to research on specific projects, there are some issues that are larger and broadly applicable to the study and exploration of open source development methodologies, including ?ProjectStructure, ?VersionControl, ?ProjectLeadership, and ?FundingOpenSourceDevelopment.