[Edu-sig] Beyond CP4E

[Rodrigo Dias Arruda Senra]

 [ Arthur <ajsiegel at optonline.net> ]
 -----------------------------------------------
 | Rodrigo writes - 
 | 
 | >  Moreover, the OpenSource/FreeSoftware rescued some moral values semi-
 | > forgotten by corporations, governments and *perhaps* 
 | > even the scientific community.

 More than one reply for my e-mail from the same person. 
 I'm flattered Arthur. ;o)

 | Why can't we look at this more like an operating system?

 
 | Corporations haven't forgotten much of anything. 

 Many times they forget that they are made of individuals, and
 that should be their most valuable assets.

 | They have consistently and always been in the "what's mine is mine" 
 | business - other corporations looking to make
 | some of what is the other corporation's theirs.  Competition ensues.  It
 | works and it doesn't work, together and at once. 

 I see your point. But I believe Corporations many times forget to
 look for win-win situations (John Nash comes to mind), or to examine
 the ecological/systemic [1] POV before defining their strategies.
 That attitude would not be against capitalist principles. 

 | No beefs.

 I believe that the open-source/free-software movements are  
 supported by the aforementioned entities (including Corporations).
 I dare to called it a beef. Sometimes who eats it is not the same
 person that pays for it, right ? But beef, nonetheless.

 | The scientific community exists in corporations, in governments, and in
 | academia.

 Sorry about my imprecise choice of words =) Thank you for the correction.
 Yet, that does not make any of my previous statement less true in my POV. 

 
 | There is evidence that what has changed is the influence of corporations on
 | the academic scientific community.  Its about people, institutions and
 | money.  

 Agreed.

 | It does seem to smell a bit.

 Yep, but there is the yang and the yin side of it.
 
 | If my readings are right, Galileo did not invent the telescope. In fact his
 | real contribution was in commercializing it.  Which made not only him but
 | other people some serious $.  Which is in large part what gave him the clout
 | that allowed him to stand up to the religious authorities of the day as long
 | as he did - his real sin having been overplaying his hand, overestimating
 | the power and the reach of his connections, and the subtext of all this
 | being interpretable as a struggle between religious and commercial
 | interests, with the scientific dispute the context or pretext.  

 What was *really* "invented" ? We talk about the (re-)invention of the wheel
 all the time. When was it invented, by whom ? 
 And I look at the moon and it screams: "PLAGIARISM!"
 
 | But I don't care what Kirby says, Alan Kay did not invent the printing
 | press. ;)
 
 After all Kay has done, I can still respect him even without having done that.
 =o)

 cheers,
 Senra


 [1] By ecological/systemic perspectives I mean Fritjof Capra's arguments
     in "Turning Point"




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   | )          Rodrigo Senra       <rsenra |at| acm.org>                      
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