Being in the flow and provide value

I recently wrote this blog post for class, delineating my views on FOSS and proprietary software, that I want to share (in modified form). First off, I would remind myself what Dr. Catherine Fulford reminds us at every opportunity, that it is all about human beings (Greg Walker n.d.). Systems are complex to be described in binary terms, especially when there are human beings involved. For this reason I would take the words anti-FOSS and anti-proprietary out of my vocabulary.

Charlie Reisinger’s comment “The practice infantilizes the student and removes agency from the learner.” prompted me to do some research and write my first blog post. I experienced this agency as well while working on documentation for an Open source software. I ended up doing a document that is neither a manual in the true sense of the word, nor a tutorial or a learning module, but adds value to the current documentation that exists for that software. In a corporate environment, chances are that an individual would follow the rules of documentation and probably not see a need for one. Flow, as suggested by Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi (2002-Flow.Pdf n.d.), must have been part of it, but I also did not have to worry about rules and be bogged down by it. Freedom as talked about by Stallman, is definitely part of it (Fsfs3-Hardcover.Pdf n.d.).

So, to me the question is not free software or proprietary software, the question is what makes a human being want to provide value to others and keep in the flow? Parts of the answer is provided by each of the above three documents. The agency that Charlie refers to, is affected by everything in our environment and this agency has to be maintained throughout the growth of the individual. The answer to that question can also change the ways the corporate world.

The free beer and the free speech aspect of FOSS is what we hear about often. What the above observations mean is that perhaps there is a free infrastructure aspect of it that we are not seeing. Computers and Software is so enmeshed in our daily lives, it can be considered mandatory infrastructure, just like roads for transportation. Most roads are free for public use and so shouldn’t the computing infrastructure be? Everybody has rights on a public road as well and so shouldn’t the computing infrastructure be? Once we acknowledge that software is basic infrastructure, then maybe we can start defining the parts that make this infrastructure and how we are going to achieve turning them into FOSS. What is the infrastructure needed for an individual to want to provide value to others and keep in the flow?

When you find all things free in real life, the source is either the government, which means it is paid for by taxes, or the source is a self sustaining philanthropic foundation or the source is the autonomous organization itself. Could these be models to follow for FOSS; a self sustaining, autonomous, non-profit, FOSS arm that maintains and runs parts of the digital infrastructure?



2002-Flow.Pdf
N.d. http://eweaver.myweb.usf.edu/2002-Flow.pdf, accessed December 12, 2017.

Fsfs3-Hardcover.Pdf
N.d. https://www.gnu.org/doc/fsfs3-hardcover.pdf, accessed December 12, 2017.

Get the Book
2016 The Open Schoolhouse. http://theopenschoolhouse.com/get-the-book/, accessed December 12, 2017.

Greg Walker
N.d. Catherine Fulford- University of Hawaii, Manoa. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7qlrSZ14mE, accessed December 12, 2017.

Infantilization and Agency
N.d. http://www.systemstechnologyandeducation.org/2017/10/infantilization-and-agency.html, accessed December 12, 2017.