Arturo Di Corinto
Rome, Italy
a dot dicorinto at uniroma1 dot it
Software is not a ordinary object but an instrument good at building other tools and instruments.
Software instructs computers in writing letters, calculating, drawing, and it’s also usefull for writing music, recording stories and ideas and projecting machines and environments, for recording climate changes or warning us of an earthquake.
Software is a peculiar language form through which people manage culture and knowledge accumulated over centuries and because of that it’s not a simple utensil. Software is a cognitive artifact and it incorporates intelligence and work, it transmits meanings and values, it brings with it the idea of its creator and of its user. The fact that its use is exclusive, limited in space and time, or vice versa that it might be modified, given, freely exchanged even behind geographical barriers, makes a remarkable difference.
If the language, la langue et la parole, is the “operating system” of the society, software is the language of scientific and technological innovation in the information society. Because of this it has to be free, that is freely usable, to favour the progress of all the society, of every society, because, otherwise we would be all less free.
Think if someone patented the language. A comic strip story of 1991, made by Zzywwuruth e Cicare’ and published in Italy by Editori del Grifo, is really prophetic over this terrible perspective. Continua a leggere Revolution Open Source
