AMIA - Why FOSS?

Peter Bubestinger-Steindl
(p.bubestinger@av-rd.com)

March 4th, 2022

FOSS = Free and Open Source Software

“In the beginning, every software was Open Source.”

Definition & details, see: Wikipedia or Free Software Foundation Europe

Why bother?

Simple wooden IKEA table
Simple wooden IKEA table

Why bother?

National Library, Vienna
National Library, Vienna

The Distant Future: The Year 2000

How would you rate this for our current state of the art digital technology?

  • repairable?
  • modifiable?
  • interoperable?
  • sustainable?
  • robust?
  • …

Free? Open? Libre? Huh?

Yes, FOSS can be awesome. But:

“Just using ‘open stuff’ won’t fix your problems.
It might even make things worse.”

(Your) Reasons to use FOSS?

“I need a free alternative for X, because we ain’t got enough budget to get the real X.”

“Your stuff’s for free, right?
Good, because we need the money to pay proprietary vendor-lock-in system X.”

“We want to study/share/improve our digital workflows. Do you know a FOSS system we could use or build on?”

Define Free/Real?

Free X: Real X:
Gratis? The “Wow! you can afford that? I’m jealous.” option?
Cheap - as in “unprofessional” or less valuable/reliable/awesome? The professional tool?
Worth less than non-free (water…)? The number one that everyone uses?
Freedom to Use, Study, Share & Improve (USSI)? The one with the great GUI?
Part of a digital commons infrastructure? The well-supported one?

What if…

Real = Free ?

  • Any reason not to want that?
    • How much would that be worth to you?
    • Do you expect free to be as good as non-free?
    • What about air, water, roads, bridges, etc?

Unpossible?!

Source: Wikipedia, by [Arminia](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Arminia)

“Free, publicly available source code is the infrastructure on which all of digital society relies.”

Source: https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/learning/research-reports/roads-and-bridges-the-unseen-labor-behind-our-digital-infrastructure/

Infrastructure?

Taxes?

  • Good:
    Most publicly funded projects now require FOSS license. 😀
    • But:
      Public institutions sometimes not motivated or “allowed” to pay for FOSS. 😭
    • Demand/help change of rules:
      Example: Public Money? Public Code! publiccode.eu

Taken for granted?

  • Who of you is using: Mediainfo, VLC, Wikipedia, Firefox, FFmpeg, QCTools, GNU/Linux, etc…?
    • What if they disappear?
    • What’s your (institution’s) plan to keep these applications alive and kicking?

How much do you value ‘IT’?

Your preference?

  1. Industrial, patented, lock-in seeds, exploit nature for profit (= Proprietary)
  2. organic, sustainable, community, handmade (= FOSS)

 

  • Which one’s required for sustainable long-term?
  • Which one’s the current mainstream?
  • Which profits whom?
  • Which one has the shinier apples?

You are ‘The Community’

Not a coder? Not a problem!
Not a coder? Not a problem!

Contributions

  • Value FOSS like fresh air or clean water.
    • Offer your time or money.
    • Write documentation.
    • Publish tutorials.
    • Design graphics.
    • Testing.
    • Raising funds.
    • Prefer/demand FOSS and open formats.
    • …

Summary

  • Environmental- and starting conditions matter.
    • Encourage and value “digital freedoms”.
    • Contribute, if possible :)
    • Allocate continuous resources (time or money)
    • Think long-term & in collaborations.

PB’s Law

“Sooner or later every software will be FOSS or perish.”

Source: www.das-werkstatt.com/forum/werkstatt

- The End -

Questions and Comments?

License and Credits

The text of this presentation is available under a Free License:

Creative Commons ‘Attribution-ShareAlike’ (CC-BY-SA)

CC-BY-SA
CC-BY-SA

Peter Bubestinger-Steindl
p.bubestinger@ArkThis.com