Open Source Software and Community Activism: The Radical Reference Model

Co-presenter: 

Eric Goldhagen

Event: 

National Conference on Organized Resistance 2007

Abstract: 

What do people mean when they say "free software"? What do we lose as a movement when we make decisions to use tools that are developed by profit-centric corporations? What community-centric alternatives exist?

In answering the above questions, we will give an accessible history of Free/Open Source software, including touching on licensing and copyright issues and then applying them to an activist community project, Radical Reference. This is a discussion for activists that use the internet as well as those that consider themselves to be techies.