[SGVLUG] BBC documentary

[juanslayton at dialup4less.com]

     I dunno, John, whether it's a good idea or not.  Depends on the specific content of the documentary, which is why I want to get a look at it.  I think the typical school board member has no idea what free software is about, or even that it exists.  So any reasonably fair presentation that could get their attention and hold it on subject for a couple of hours could be a valuable resource.

John

John E. Kreznar wrote ..
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> <juanslayton at dialup4less.com> writes:
> 
> >      Just wondering if anyone has access to BBC World broadcasting?
> >      They are airing a 2-part documentary on free and open-source
> >      software.  Reportedly they give it favorable treatment,
> >      including significant air time by Stallman. 
> 
> >      There is a writeup at http://www.apdip.net/news/fossdoc
> 
> >      If I could get this on tape, I'd like to pass it around to a
> >      few school board members here in the valley.
> 
> Are you sure that's a good idea?
> 
> Based on that write-up, the documentary perpetuates an association
> between FOSS and the underprivileged side of the "digital divide", as
> though FOSS were some kind of loathsome stuff that the privileged and
> affluent avoid if they can.
> 
> Better to awaken school board members (and anyone else) to the dirty
> secret of proprietary software: Its purveyors have an incentive to
> keep their customers ignorant, because with knowledge they would no
> longer need the purveyors.  The truly pathetic victims of this drama
> are not the school children in Africa or the poor in Brazil, but the
> generation of computer illiterates that's been created by Bill Gates
> so he can continue to tax their ignorance.
> 
> - -- 
>  John E. Kreznar jek at ininx.com 9F1148454619A5F08550 705961A47CC541AFEF13
>  ... who can't do proprietary software, because he would rather go
>  hungry than bind an innocent customer into ignorance with the reverse
>  engineering clause of a EULA.  (That would be cruel punishment.)
> 
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