“Thinking about “the challenges of a open practice” gets me thinking about what “radical openness” could mean. On the surface, it could just mean really, really, extremely, very open. But that's a overly colloquial understanding of the word radical, as in “totally rad,” as opposed to “radical critique.” Extreme or drastic is not necessarily radical. Radical requires a fundamental transformation, change so deep it goes to the root, the “radix”. Radical has the a same linguistic root as “radish,” the edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family. Thus, to be radical, a practice has to get at the root, to work towards a fundamental transformation, no matter how moderate or gradual.
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For the masses, openness in terms of their productive life is simply not a practice they can chose. This means that the degree of openness that we can have is not determined by individual choice, but by collective struggle. Radical openness requires collective struggle. In this light, radical openness can only mean the collective struggle for a more open society, which is a society where open practice is not threatened by repression or economic consequence. Which means that radical openness must be closed to violations of privacy and to economic exploitation.”
ROBERT STEELE: As I completely resort the existing 1,200+ pages on Open Source this and that at the P2P Foundation Wiki, I will hand-pick a few gems for highlighting here at Phi Beta Iota. Michel Bauwens has rendered a huge service with what is there now, and I hope for a substantial enhancement as others rally to elaborate on the nine sub-categories of Open Source Everything.
See Also:
P2P Foundation Wiki Category:Open Source Everything
