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Matt Butcher reports on the North American Computers and Philosophy (NA-CAP) conference that had FOSS and Open Access as its two main topics.

For example, Samir Chopra and Scott Dexter, one a philosopher, the other a computer scientist, presented a paper on the so-called “Freedom-Zero Problem” with the Free Software Definition: How can one claim that it is morally responsible to mandate the unrestricted access to and use of code even in cases where this will certainly lead to harm? For example, why doesn’t the GPL forbid Free Software from being used in nuclear weaponry, or for torturing other humans? This ethically charged issue reappeared in numerous conversations throughout the conference.

Chopra & Dexter have a blog and they have just published the book Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software. Read the introduction. This is how Steven Weber thinks about the book:

In Decoding Liberation, Samir Chopra and Scott Dexter recapture and extend a part of the conversation that will ultimately be much more important than business models, patent and copyright law, or total cost of ownership for a piece of software. What does the open source model offer to political, artistic, and scientific freedom, and thus to the human enterprise of creativity beyond the guts of a computing machine? Their book is an eloquent, thoughtful, adventurous, and exciting dive into what really matters about changing the rules of code.

I hope to have time to read the book one day.

Some picks from the program:

• The Freedom Zero Problem: Free Software and the Ethical Use of Software
  Samir Chopra & Scott Dexter
• Acting for the Best and Acting Legitimately: Challenges Facing the Stronger Claims of the Free Software Movement
  Jamie Dow
• The Free, Open Source Option as Ethic
  John Bork
• Open Source Philosophy and “Democratic Rationalization” in Africa
  Evaristus O Ekwueme
• The Missing Link: Computer Ethics and Formal Methods
  Darren Abramson & Lee Pike
• Panel: A Skeptical Look at Wikipedia
  Panelists: Tony Doyle, James Caufield, Don Fallis & Marc Meola
• Web 3.0 – Tools for Co-operation? Social Philosophical Remarks on the Desirable Possible Future Development of the Internet
  Wolfgang Hofkirchner

Recently we had a conference dealing with several digital divide related topics: citizen participation, free software, biopatents, copyright, and sustainable information society. Some papers are available. Keynotes by Colin Lankshear and Rishab Aiyer Ghosh may be of interest to FLOSS researchers, as well as the papers in the “Open and Collaborative models” session and Tere Vadén’s paper from the IP session. My presentation is missing from the conference site; you can read the slides while I’m finishing my paper. I think the conference was succesful. I met some good people to work with in the future.

Also, hello to people reading Planet FLOSS Research.

I’ve mentioned before our seminar on IP and digital divides (14-15 March 2005). The seminar programme is now available, together with abstracts. Keynotes will be given by Colin Lankshear, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Avinash Jha,
Wolfgang Kleinwächter and Marjut Salokannel (link in Finnish).

See the web site for information on registration and topics.

Frederick Noronha asked me to give a report on Linux Asia 2005.

After Asia Source, Linux Asia was a boring event. The difference between community events and corporate-driven conferences is that the latter have lots of PR talk and you need to work to find out what is the reality. But I also wanted to see the corporate side of FLOSS. Some random notes below.
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We are organising a seminar on freedom and sharing in the global network society. Two key themes of the seminar are “Freedom and Sharing in the Global Network Society” and “Globally Sustainable Information Society”. Some of the topics we hope have presentations about are free software, balance in the copyright regime and network & participation.

See the announcement. Submit your abstract today!