[IAEP] [SLOBS] non-free activities on ASLO

[David Farning]

On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 6:01 PM, Martin Langhoff <martin.langhoff at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 2:41 PM, Chris Ball <cjb at laptop.org> wrote:
>> Yes.  We ratified at a SLOBS meeting that non-free activities (or
>> content) should *not* be hosted on ASLO, and attempted to specify
>> what we mean by non-free:
>
> I personally think it is very good that free are clearly separated
> from non-free, and I think it's good strategically for all involved.
>
> There is one aspect that will be tricky on the content side -- it is
> very easy to create / release content that is in itself free, but
> dependent on non-free software. Picture the well-meaning content
> creator that releases a Flash interactive under a CC license (and it
> uses fancy Flash10 things that are not in Gnash).
>
> Educational content creators aren't as educated as FOSS programmers in
> the vagaries and politics of patents, software licensing and all (they
> are educated in other legalities, usually). We can't flame them for
> being dumb, they are smart about a different set of things.
>
> Much of their work will be what Debian would call "contrib" -- Free in
> itself but depending on non-free bits.
>
> While 'contrib' in Debian is usually not very big, if Sugar succeeds
> attracting content creators, it might be a big category... at least
> until the free tools mature, and the authors learn why it matters,
> switch tools, etc.
>
> It is a social process that will take a while -- I am sure there'll be
> 'contrib' stuff for quite a while, maybe forever.
>
> </rambling background>
>
> So... what about "contrib"?
>

Martin articulated my views rather well.

I believe that Sugar Labs is an education project which uses open source development methodologies and licences because they are socially just and extremely cost effective at building the common platform.

The ecosystem to support and develop deployments is _as_ important as the platform itself.

As such, as part of my ongoing sugar ecosystem building efforts I have registered ACTIVIDADES.COM and will establish a marketplace for non-free activities.

I will continue all of my current technical ASLO support and development and will abstain from further policy discussion about what should be hosted on the Sugar Labs site.

david  
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