[Its.an.education.project] Ivan's latest blog entry on OLPC

[Greg DeKoenigsberg]

On Wed, 14 May 2008, Ivan Krsti? wrote:

> Not in the least. Stallman is a black-and-whiteist; issues to him have 
> no shades of grey. The issue of OLPC and open source is an issue of 
> shades of grey: I claim OLPC has a responsibility to openness for 
> computers it ships and software it writes, but this is by no means 
> mutually exclusive with also working to make its software available on 
> as wide a range of platforms as possible, including proprietary ones. 
> Stallman thinks making Sugar available for a proprietary platform is 
> morally reprehensible, and I in turn think calling it morally 
> reprehensible is evil.

I agree with this assessment, although I think "evil" is a touch over the 
top.

> Then I realized it's exactly the absence of transparency about the 
> innards of OLPC that would lead the public to conclude that it was the 
> concept that was failing. A clear account of the goings-on would, if 
> anything, make the dichotomy between organization and idea more stark in 
> the public eye. So I wrote one. Yes, it's angry. It's about as angry as 
> if it was written by someone who worked 18-hour days for two years to 
> make OLPC succeed against all odds, and then woke up one day to discover 
> that the company's Chief Astronaut has landed and taken the company on a 
> 180-degree turnaround about its mission, goals, and core values. And 
> he's selling it to the press as if it were business as usual.

Rightly so, I think.

--g

-- 
Greg DeKoenigsberg
Community Development Manager
Red Hat, Inc. :: 1-919-754-4255
"To whomsoever much hath been given...
...from him much shall be asked"