[575] Open Coding Innovation: A Roadmap to socially - responsible, sustainable economic and technological growth

Description

In a time where economic and social prosperity are dependent upon societyís capacity to deliver, commercialise and fairly distribute the fruits of innovation, the imbalance between the pace of technical change and institutional innovation poses an obstacle that ought to be overcome if we are not to feel endangered by a world dreadfully out of control, in which technology is increasingly pervading our lives.

Furthermore, evidence of widespread financial engineering malpractices and mounting dissatisfaction with the free market capitalist system have spread as a media virus overwhelming global financial markets and asking for a major restructuring in corporate governance. As a result, in the face of a global, networked economy where commercial exploitation of scientific knowledge gives rise to products and services which have a far-reaching social and environmental impact, such as in the case of genetically modified food and ëzero-emissioní cars; the need to enforce upon companies obligations to communities is undeniable.

To ease these tensions, a dramatically different approach towards social and economic organisation has to be enforced. For that approach to flourish, technological progress should not be viewed as an end in itself but as a means to tackle real human needs and societal concerns. But apart from a shift in common perceptions as to what better promotes social and technological growth, a novel form of licensing technological artefacts has to be put in place for the surrounding community to be empowered to act as and when needed.

This license should be underlined by a dual character: first, to provide the guidelines for the structural organisation and management and most importantly, to incorporate clauses (that can be legally enforceable and initiated by the community) related to digital freedom, human rights and environmental sustainability. For all its advantages that we all celebrate, the GNU GPL is solely concerned with digital freedom while dismissing the requirements for human rights and environmental sustainability. This presentation will address this chasm and will propose solutions in order to cross the chasm.

In the organisation side, the most prominent example of such community ñ centred organisation of distributed intelligence takes shape in the sphere of Libre Software development, most cited 'success' of which is the Linux OS, the brainchild of Net-savvy software developers sharing the hacker ideology ñ a digital artifact emanating from the Internet ñ enabled collaborative endeavour of thousands of volunteers under no central planning. On these premises, Libre Software communities and development models hold lessons that extend well beyond the limited realm of software engineering, and replication of a robust framework might lead to invaluable advance regarding deploying network resources to enhance the efficiency of distributed development practices and trigger radical innovation whilst extending its reach to include human rights, community - accountability and environmental sustainability.

This presentation delves into the Linux development model with respect to its management and organisational aspects, contrasts it to proprietary development models, analyses why going 'open source' is a rational business strategy and explains how to actually set such an 'open, collaborative community-managed strategy' into motion, and further elaborates on a wide spectrum of industries and areas where such a development model is most likely to become prevalent in the years to come. It also introduces the implications inherent in the licensing of technological products with respect to human rights, digital freedom, community involvement and environmental sustainability. Technological policy and a new ësocial contractí (as reflected by a new form of license) between the community, the organisations and the society in general are of primary importance, if we wish to safely confront the unintended consequences of scientific extremism and corporate negligence.