Current FLOSS climate

The success of FLOSS has brought changes to the movement. Moreover, its influence is extending further outside the domain of software development and distribution. One such change is the shift of concerns from developers’ perspec- tives to that of the users’ experience. Two factors contributing to this transition can be identified. First, because of the increasing awareness of FLOSS among the general public and mainstream media, more non-technical users have been drawn into adopting FLOSS. In other words, FLOSS’s user community has expanded significantly to include users of all abilities, and has now reached a critical balance between software developers and normal users. Second, since FLOSS had already proved its technical advantages over the past years, a change of development to focus on users experience would be required to reach a wider audience. Because of this, FLOSS developers on the one hand need to start adjusting to the changes in the nature of its user base and on the other hand, providing solutions enabling FLOSS to become more accessible to the general public.

The most noticeable example of this shift is perhaps the release of a GNU/Linux distribution named “Ubuntu” in October 2004. Ubuntu’s main goal is to make the use of GNU/Linux operating system as straightforward as possible. In other words, one can install, maintain and perform various tasks without substantial technical skills. Although such attempts have been made by other modern GNU/Linux distributions, Ubuntu is by far considered as the most successful effort to date. Another example of a FLOSS project that is hugely endorsed by the general public is the Mozilla Firefox web browser. Since the release of version 1.0, FireFox has now become the second most widely-used web browser. It is estimated that it has more than seventy million users world wide.

Other recent changes in FLOSS also include the development and support for hand-held devices such as mobile phones, media players and gaming consoles. Fueled by the advances in miniaturized computing technology and wireless con- nectivity, personal electronics have become highly demanded in the market place. Many manufacturers54

therefore started to adopt FLOSS as the op-

54

erating system for such products. In some cases, devices were developed with strong emphasis on the FLOSS integration. For instance, companies openly embrace individuals wishing to write software and perform customizations for the product55

. In other words, manufacturers are now attempting to adopt not just the software but also the open methodology of FLOSS into various aspects of their products.

This change has highlighted the proliferation of FLOSS from its conventional usage in servers and desktop computers to the next generation of smart personal devices. This would enable FLOSS to be deployed in a wider range of contexts whilst allowing all supported platforms to communicate. As a result, users can not only benefit from a unified software environment but can also encourage innovative uses of FLOSS.

Another noteworthy example involving FLOSS is the ongoing OLPC56

(One Laptop Per Child) project. Led by MIT media lab and several key figures57

in the technology industry, the aim is to produce fully functional laptops at very low cost. They will then be distributed for free to children worldwide, especially focusing on those in developing countries. OLPC therefore hopes to minimize the technology divide in the future in the world by giving children the opportu- nity to access knowledge and communicating with one and another. Features of these laptops includes high-resolution color screen, audio input/output, wireless connectivity and extremely low power consumption. GNU/Linux was naturally selected as the operating system for the device, so to achieve long term sustain- ability, as well as low production cost.

The effect of FLOSS can also be observed outside of the software and computing context. As mentioned previously, the underlying collaborative methodology of FLOSS has brought forward a successful alternative to social activities in general. Its gift economy based culture which values distributed community, re- Linux driven hand-held Internet Tablet in 2005. This device (Nokia 770 Internet Tablet), has gained much popularity since then and a second version was release in early 2007

55

A South Korea company, Hampers Holdings, produced a Linux based hand-held gaming console named GP2X. The company actively encourages users contribute to the devleopment of game and software for the console.

56

http://laptop.org/ 57

source sharing and voluntary efforts, provides an efficient backdrop where great accomplishments may be made. This is a stark contrast to the conventional model of cooperation based on profit and rivalry.

One of the most notable influences of this kind may be found in the phenomena of the on-line knowledge database called “Wikipedia”58

. As the name implies, it is a combination of the word “wiki”59

and “encyclopedia”. Its aim is to create a wealth of knowledge through voluntary editing and peer review. The database of information created can then be freely accessed and referenced. To date, wikipedia contains millions of information entries and exists in many different languages. Following the success of Wikipedia, many similar projects followed, each serving a different and specialized content.

Social activities such as wikipedia also highlight another important aspect of distributed collaboration. Because of its open structure, participants generally contribute to the work in progress according to their ability and expertise. As a result, a high quality and standard of the overall work can be achieved without centralized management and task assignment.

Apart from the model of collaboration, the FLOSS’s approach to licensing has also been exported outside the realm of software. The establishment of the Cre- ative Commons(CC)60

in 2001 is the most recognizable attempt of this move- ment. Through a series of customizable licenses, author/artists could release any creative content enabling others to modify and redistribute it freely. In- stead of the “All rights reserved” limitations imposed by the conventional use of copyright laws, creative commons allows “Some rights reserved” and encour- ages the fair use of any materials published under CC. Since the introduction of CC, more and more artists and institutions are adopting this type of licensing methods. This can be seen through the amount of creative material already accumulated and freely available on the Internet61

.

58

http://wikipedia.org/ 59

Wiki is a type website that allows the visitors to easily edit and change available content on the page

60_{http://creativecommons.org} 61

For example, archive.org hosts a wealth of creative content licensed under CC thus make them freely available

With the success of projects such as wikipedia and Creative Commons, this approach of releasing and managing information is now generally referred to as “open content”, following the analogy of “open source”. Apart from the examples given above, the promotion of open content can also be observed in the context of academic publishing62

and scientific data base63

. Moreover, independent journalism is another sector which has been heavily affected by this phenomena, also known as Indymedia.

In short, FLOSS’s influence on decentralized, distributed collaboration method- ology may be observed in increasing aspects of social activities, some of them having yielded highly positive results.This approach has also had a huge impli- cation in the context of contemporary digital art.