Free software as a Commons
by Arturo Di Corinto
“Thanks to its characteristics, free, open source software, is a distributed property that is capable of evolving into a Public Good.”
Its “open” and modular language, which is freely accessible and created thanks to the collaboration of many in different stages, allowing it to be perfected and modified, make the free software a “relational good” that, thanks to its accessibility, non-exclusivity and lack of competitiveness presents all the characteristics of a common resource: something which everyone can make use of, even if they have not participated directly in its creation.
The free software as an “environment for interaction”, presents itself as a meeting place for scientific research, social cooperation and innovation. Thanks to its “openness”, the free software is capable of “evolving” as an incubator for ideas and relations, which are the abstract constituents of highly evolved technological products. Continua a leggere Free software as a Commons