Ok, so you mean “this emergent community here in the Internet of Humans space” as opposed to, say, “the tech community in the Nordic countries”, or any other community you might be a part of. Noted. 
Wow, this is really valuable!
Don’t free/open source programs run into trouble a lot of the time because the person(s) who created it often move on to other projects and don’t support them as they need to migrate to upgraded operating systems and hardware requirements?
I assume with “programs” you mean smaller open source software projects.
It is not difficult to find such situations, but the answer to the kind of “inverse” question is true as well: “Doesnt it happen that open source projects can be continued by other person(s) after the original creator(s) do not support them anymore?”.
And in contrast to the also often happening event that a proprietary software product gets the plug pulled out, at least there is the technical and legal possibility to continue using (or migrating) that specific technology.
So, I do not really understand where your question points at. I see a couple of points (maintainer burnout, blind dependency on projects with unclear (future) stories, and all the reasons that lead to failing or abandoned projects).
Besides, it is not the programs that run into the trouble, but those users relying on it and not being able to create a situation (or society 
), where safety nets or a responsibility chain (you are holding one end yourself) are in place for the stuff one relies on.
For the tech-savy: some pretty nerdy puns inside:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/7dc7de/what_happens_when_linus_dies/
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Yes you are correct it is true that an open source program of any sort can be carried on by others which is a great virtue and strength. Some of my experience is with nonprofit and other small organizations who are not well funded and go for open source software to save money but like you say it is necessary to have somebody with technical ability to maintain an even move ahead these programs.
Open Source (for humans) - in my opinion - is not about saving anyones money. Its about maintaining a culture of transparency, collaboration, empowerment and freedom.
Running computer systems, in any form, comes with a cost - be it your time or your money - its equally true.
Its true also, that if you don’t care - you are still free (under the four freedoms of foss) to USE the software as you please. However, if you think that running/modifying the software comes without cost, you need to rethink. Free and Open Source Software has nothing to do with cost. Its about what principles the software operates under. In FOSS software, those principles are “hacked” into western copyright law by utilizing a license scheme that guarantee the four freedoms for anyone and mandates that this freedom is passed forward. Its popularly called “copyleft”, but its really just a hack of the existing anglosaxian copyright. As curiosa on this is that it was not until this year that the chines law recognized open source licenses as valid at all under Chinese law which tells a story about the current copyright legislation and its reach.
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Well said.
What is the parameter to measure the “know in depth”? I’m on this world since 1997. Is time a good metric?
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@erik_lonroth I’m very curious about this. Currently applying for money on how to educate kids and youngsters who have not been reached by existing educational initiatives around coding and software/hardware. Key aspect of the funding applications is having a starting point from FOSS/OSHW in order to widen mentality, thinking and leadership.
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Lets get together and try meet soon?
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Hi Erik. @hugi showed me the transcript of the listening triads from the event in Stockholm. I was quite taken with a rather eloquent statement you made there, “My dream is to have an internet where everything is truly allowed. And it should be easy to choose where to be, if you disagree with something, don’t go there.”
I wonder if you would be willing to elaborate a bit on this. You had also mentioned monopolies. Do you see monopoly behavior that prevents this? Maybe the key is “easy to choose where to be.” Maybe it just seems easy, but we get funneled into things without our knowing it?
Thanx. I think that you in a broad sense need to question which parts of internet you choose to act within. This also boils down to society level.
- Where on internet should we put our children who cant separate good from bad, truth from lies?
- Where do we invest our common resources to the benefit for whom?
- What causes real harm and suffering?
- Where do we go for good, love, meaning and all the other existential question that always have made us humans?
Perhaps many of your good concerns and questions finds reason in the discussions on this. I dont know.
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Regarding kids, I am generally opposed to “nanny state” laws that assume parental duties that are in my opinion best left to the parents.
Here, a perfect example on how we are forced to watch ads: Slashdot
In my view, this kind of behaviour from govt/corp is what is typical for our internet today.
Force feeding of Ads. NO means to escspe.
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I would love to meet soon. Before summer vacation would be great. Perhaps next week if you’re in Stockholm on Mo, Tu or Wed - or the week after? I reckon it would be interesting to visit https://jarvaveckan.se/ on 12th of 13th and explore if there are any software/digital initiatives represented there and willing to talk FOSS.
I’m considering hosting a prototype open workshop to flash Android phones with LineageOS.org for folks who wish to get rid of Google’s and OEM vendor bloatware. At https://GoTo10.se or similar. I know at least one non-techsavvy person who would be interested in that but I’m also wondering if there could be a crowd and if/how the prototype can be developed for kids/youth to learn more about hardware & devices.
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I guess time is a great measure - especially if one has continuously has been learning more and deeper or broader knowledge in the field.
http://FFKP.se and http://morus.se/ did an interesting study on this comparing proprietary with FOSS in public sector municipality school. The conclusion was something like: it costed the same financially and the migration to FOSS costed time as people had to relearn things they knew well from the proprietary world (similar to Münich’s migration to FOSS). However, I it’s important to stress that when looking at this there are multiple other capitals that are changing which can be game changers, such as the social capital, as in FOSS with the idea of empowering the user (such as school kids) to read the source code of school systems and learn which opens up for building new intellectual capital and other capitals. This is a huge benefit to FOSS in comparison to proprietary which is not seen within an analysis only comparing the difference between financial capital.
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I always stress: There is no such thing as a free lunch. FOSS has nothing to do with money.
FOSS is about knowledge, freedom, trust/transparency, empowering and maybe a little community.
I dont care much for the economy personally. There will always be enough people that worry about those aspects. I’m focusing on the Human part of this in this context.
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I agree FOSS in itself has nothing to do with money.
For sure! I’m not too knowledgable about Linux/Debian/Ubuntu communities but from what I understand community seem to be a beneficial variable. Projects with great communities often thrives in comparison to the ones without.
Good point. I think the Human part in this context is what can have something to do with community, belonging, a sense of meaning and purpose in contrast to proprietary software that you can’t be a part of in the same way.
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I’m going to Borderlands and will be able to host a Open Source workshop to initiate this work.
If you are interested let me know and I’ll set it up on spot.
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