Tech issues in election 2008 (Was: Re: About the Green Party...)

[Russell McOrmond]

On Fri, 3 Oct 2008, Emma Jane Hogbin wrote:

> I personally liked the response that came through from Michael
> Richardson that talked about some of the "cons" of the Green Party
> policy.

   It is actually a standard problem of when political parties talk about 
technology law.  While MCR has personal experience with the GPC, my 
viewing of pretty much every party is that they are the same at this level 
--- that the parties themselves don't know much about these areas of 
policy, but individual members/candidates do.

   This is why it is so important to largely ignore what the parties are 
saying, and talk to individual candidates.

   I also don't agree with MCR on talking open source vs. open standards. 
Discussing FLOSS in the context of the economy could easily be more about 
peer production, and it is just as valid to talk about this as it is to 
discuss whether you believe tax cuts are or are not a way of helping the 
economy.

   See: The Wealth of Networks -- Benkler.org

    I'm not saying that this is what the GPC was or was not talking about. 
Just that talking about Peer Production (even incorrectly spelled "Open 
Source" before) as many people do -- I've heard the phrase "open source 
politics) is far larger and more important than just open standards.  I 
also think that we'll only get open standards as a result of politicians 
finally understanding peer production, and not as likely the other way 
around.  The old-economy belief that greater exclusive rights improves the 
economy will only lead politicians to grant greater exclusive rights on 
interfaces (and use acquisition policies that respect and promote those 
exclusive interfaces).

> There is no reason why the Ubuntu community can't advocate for open 
> source/open standards across ALL political parties without it degrading 
> into a flamefest.

    Agreed.  Rather than focusing on the insignificant number of past MPs 
that knew something about technology issues and what parties they happened 
to in, we need to focus on finding the gems across the country and helping 
to get them into parliament -- no matter what party they are in.  It is 
far better to have a  handful of technology aware people in every party 
than it would be to have one party that had everyone understanding it.

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
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