Whither Free Software Movement?
Talk
2.5 hrs
October 26, 2024 4:00 pm Saturday
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The Open Source movement has defeated the Free Software Movement(FSM). Hopes of a revolutionary transformation of the software world, leave alone the society, have been proven to be idealist and the Corporate takeover of the so-called Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement is complete. The FOSS movement is today led by the big corporate, and the spirit of activism is almost dead. Hence it’s important to discuss the historical trajectory of both the movements, and analyze ideological weakness of the Free Software Movement. The program will focus on a review of corporate control over the FOSS movement, the reasons behind the "success" of the Open Source Movement, the historical compromises of the FSM, false notions FSM nourished about political economy of the software world and volunteerism, in the perspective of the Anarchist underpinnings of the activists within the FSM.

Organizer
In Defense of Reason
In Defense of Reason is a city-level forum that aims to promote reason and rationality in society and talk about the burning contemporary questions of society to understand how to face them. We have held several discussions and talks at Lamakaan, most recently on the student movement against Israel and in support of Palestine by Professor Immanuel Ness, and on EVM and Electoral Bonds by Prof. Padmaja Shaw.