“As I noted last month I have been amused, writing this blog over the years, to watch the political progress of open source”, wrote Dana Blankenhorn in ZDnet blogs. Se adds that when she first started at ZDnet “open source advocates were considered the fringe”. Dana also said something that’s sad but true – that people look at advocates like Richard Stallman and say “hippie”. It is true that if you explain to someone who knows who Bill Gates is, that Mr. Linux – Linus Torvalds – is not a billionaire, and this is only because he hadn’t intention to commercialize its intention they would be amazed and would find the idea of Open source ‘creepy”.
But as Dana says “as open source grew, it became a political cause for government”. He’s right. A few years ago two French politicians form the right-wing UMP inspired the French parliament to pass a bill that enforced the use of Open Office (a free Open Source alternative of expensive Microsoft Office program) in public institutions.
Almost at the same time, in 2006, the State of Massachusetts struggled to endorse the ODF file format. When it comes to Open SOurce, especially in United States politicians line up on both sides of each battle.
Read Dana Blankenhorn’s article “Open source becomes irresistible political force” to learn more about his cogerage on Open Source related political battles.