Thomas Holbrook II | The Feedomware Project
The Internet is a powerful force. It is so powerful that politicians quake in their shoes, because it’s something even they have no control over. Social networking has proved to be a powerful tool to organize and communicate with others. Yes, movements are powered in the beginning by the net, but The Freedomware Project shall not rely on it solely. Allow me to draw a couple of parallels, so that it can be understood why.
Enter the political underground. They often used the Internet to distribute films, such as Loose Change, that matched their point of view. The Internet meme known as Anonymous has also used the Internet quite effectively when opposing and criticizing the Church of Scientology. Through the use of YouTube, Google Docs, and other tools, the message of both were able to be widespread. However, there was one essential problem.
They both recognized that even with the potential to share information on a massive scale with tools such as Bit-torrent, it will only go so far. Even with the power of Twitter and other social networking tools, the audience is still limited. Finally, even with the ability to communicate with the masses via YouTube and Blip.tv, without a following in the first place, the cries of the body politic may often fall on deaf ears and blind eyes. Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation, only uses the Internet in a limited capacity for this very reason. To solely rely on the Internet is to spell the doom of any movement, organized or not.
By doing research on bill 773, which is currently in the Senate and not going any further (for now), one can recognize why solely relying on the Internet is not a good idea. This bill, if passed into law, would authorize the President of the United States to shut down access to the Internet in the event of an emergency. However, the definition of emergency is rather vague. If anything, this bill will likely be bundled in with another bill, just like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was with a farm subsidy bill at the early hours of the morning. It does not matter what anyone’s political views are; no President should ever have that kind of authority.
So yes, the Internet can be very helpful in confronting authority, but real life influences what can happen on the Internet. The converse holds true as well. That is why when it comes to companies such as Microsoft, the battles must be in multiple arenas. So this is a prelude of sorts to this story. I myself do not know if there will ever be an ending to it, but hopefully there will never be an ending to freedomware itself. This is the introduction before the beginning… the prelude itself.
When I saw the book, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, I was in for an awakening. I thought that hackers were people who wreaked havoc online, stole credit card numbers, and made peoples’ lives miserable with computer viruses. After reading Steven Levy’s book, I realized that I was misled by the popular misconceptions bandied about by Hollywood. In my early years of college, I learned about the real story behind Kevin Mitnick, and needless to say, I saw the so called media in a whole new light. Fear and paranoia of those who understood computers to a better degree than most has been propagated not only by the corporate media itself, but by companies such as Symantec, McAfee, and Microsoft.
So when people express fear when it comes to new technology, I can understand it. I even sympathize to a degree, because there are times when new technology just isn’t necessary, because the method that’s currently implemented is not broken or inefficient. However, I also see a trend throughout the United States that encourages people to be ignorant when it comes to using a computer, so that they can be controlled more easily by those who wish to make money off of them as well as those who simply wish to control the users themselves. Those who do not understand technology will be controlled for the rest of their lives by those who do. Through the power of education, the user can be set free.
For those who have read The Freedomware Project Manifesto, the definition of freedomware itself has already been made clear. Any software that allows the user to run it without restriction, to make copies for others, to access the source code, to modify the source code, and to release the changes of the source code to the public is essentially freedomware. The user immediately knows that they are free when something is labeled freedomware.
In order to counter companies such as Microsoft in their attempts to imprison the user, multiple things must be done. Yes, it will initially be done on the Internet, but it must expand from there to other arenas. The following must be done in order to strengthen the foundation of freedomware itself:
- Promote, support, fund, and donating equipment to any freedomware project, whether it be software, hardware, or charity related.
- Form a public relations group to counter any false claims made against freedomware itself (i.e. Windows being superior to other operating systems).
- Form an activist group to communicate with public officials pertaining to any policy, rule, regulation, and law that will affect freedomware itself as well as communicate with other people about the benefits of freedomware.
By having a starting point, the prelude shall end, and the computer revolution will truly begin. More people are becoming tired of viruses, trojans, ad-ware, and spy-ware invading the hard drive of their machines. When criticizing Microsoft, a great deal of people may be in agreement. However, nothing is accomplished without discussing the alternatives, which has already taken place in a sense. So what now?
Now I open the site for all to see, and I invite everyone to join. There is site membership and forum membership. The site will allow for feedback on blog posts, while the forum can be of great assistance to those who want to bring about new ideas or find ways to improve existing ideas. In the coming days, there will be a listing of high priority projects that will be useful for those who want to liberate computer users around the globe. Some of them may not be surprising while others will. Any project listed will have an explanation as to why it is important, so it won’t be on a whim alone that anything shows up on The Freedomware Project’s radar.
Now that the prelude has ended, the first chapter of the true beginning of the computer revolution shall now be written. For those who wish to help me do so, please feel free to contact me via e-mail: thomas@freedomwareproject.org. Whatever skill sets one may have, I can use all the help I can get. Thank so much for your time, and may digital freedom ring.