I’ve been a fan of open source since learning about it in high school. I’ve been running Fedora linux as my main operating system for the past five years, and my first internship was at Red Hat, the world’s largest open source company. It was clear to me that open source software is significantly better for the developer, which translates into significant improvements for the user. Futhermore, I was convinced that open source philosophy just made sense — not only for software, but for other things as well. For a brief look at the open source movement, read the first paragraph of the wiki page for “Open Source Movement.”
Going into my research this summer, I figured that the typically touted open source values of freedom and equality would correspond very well with Christian values. I’ve been an open source advocate since high school, and a large part of that was because I believed that open source corresponded with my Christian values. And I was not alone in identifying the one with the other — this article from the Economist, the now-archival Open Source Theology site, and other sites and blogs have noticed the relationship. Some of my reading material for this summer confirmed this. From Kirkpatrick’s Critical Technology: A Social Theory of Computing: “Only from this starting point will we be able to identify virtuous uses of the web — those that everyone can agree ought to be prioritised — and to privilege these by ensuring that they are not disadvantaged, legislated against or otherwise inhibited by the machinations of power. Examples might well be the open source movement itself. . . .” Two weeks ago, I interviewed a leader in the open source world, who will remain nameless. It was a thoroughly enjoyable interview, but not entirely what I expected. He confirmed that the core value of the open source movement is sharing, but the other values promoted through the open source movement were what surprised me. In no particular order, the values he listed were: Continue reading
