Eben Moglen at the Plone Conference on Software and Social Change
Jon put on a great conference, and one of the high points was the keynote delivered by Eben Moglen: Software and Community in the Early 21st Century. He’s a phenomenal speaker, with an amazing grasp of history, and the place of open source software in the greater context of human struggle. According to Eben, we’re moving past an age of steel, an age of production and scarcity, to an age of sharing and collaboration, an age of zero marginal costs. In this new world, there is no justification for the proprietary model of software–it’s not as good (see IE7), it’s economically more expensive, and it’s is less moral than the open source model. Open source software and communities have the potential to benefit the world, particularly the poor.
Find the time to watch it. He’s amazing. Thanks Eben for coming to the Plone conference and sharing your thoughts!
technorati tags: opensource, socialchange
