[dot] Member of Parliament Patrick Harvie Talks to KDE

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1184072113/

From: Jonathan Riddell <>
Dept: guest-speakers
Date: Tuesday 10/Jul/2007, @05:55

Member of Parliament Patrick Harvie Talks to KDE
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   The final talk on Saturday at Akademy 2007
[http://akademy2007.kde.org] was from Patrick Harvie
[http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/membersPages/patrick_harvie/index.htm],
a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Green Party.  While not a
technical wizard like most of the other talks of the day, Patrick was
able to describe to us the attitudes to free software from the
Government he is elected to keep an eye on, and how the work of KDE
developers applies to more than just software.  Read on for a summary of
his talk.
    Patrick Harvie talking at Akademy
     Like most people he used to think computers equals windows, since
that is what you see every day when you switch your computer on.  In
schools we are teaching our young people that this is what computers
are.  He  gradually led through using free software until he realised he
no longer needed Windows at all.  When a company tells you you're not
allowed to share and cooperate, that's important to reject.  He now
considers the operating system he uses at home to be better than the
proprietary one he uses at work in parliament.  However it takes a lot
of work to persuade people who are not technically minded that there
might be something better, both functionally and politically.  Free
software sits better with how the public service should be run for the
common good.  As an aside he considers that creative commons is
reinventing ideas that were fundamental to the Scottish Enlightenment.

     Last year he put in written questions to the government asked how
much money they spend on Microsoft licences.  Before getting an answer
from the executive he got an e-mail from Microsoft inviting him out to
dinner.  He was briefly tempted by the dinner but decided to invite the
representative to have coffee at his office instead, wondering why the
man from Microsoft wanted to talk to him.  It became clear that they
have a vast amount of money to persuade people like him that Microsoft
is open and not so bad but they are, of course, a waste of money.

     He went to see Eben Moglen (lawyer behind the GPL 3) talk last week
in Edinburgh.  One other MSP, from the right wing Conservative party,
went expecting to be get some nice drinks with some lawyers but from the
talk even he started to realise the benefits of free software.  Eben
made the case that applying that same open process to the legislative
process is something governments can learn from.  Huge numbers of people
are bored and cynical of politicians in jobs like his and feel that
parties have it all stitched up and the public can not cooperate with
the process.  The Scottish Parliament has tried to improve the process,
for example the petitions committee lets anyone ask questions or propose
ideas.  Other areas include press review where the current system is
closed but an open system would let people review complaints made to the
press.  He is convinced the work KDE is doing has more to say than just
how we make software but also how we run society too.

     In answering a question about how we can use the political process
more he describes how Microsoft had a government conference in the
Scottish Parliament on the day of Windows Vista's launch.  There Bill
Gates could tell governments that Windows is the norm.  He tried to
organise a counter conference on the same day but there was no room. 
However such an event could be organised in parliament and he says MSPs
and civil servants would turn up.

     Asked about use in education he said it was utterly wrong to teach
children there is only one product in the market.  However schools are
very reluctant to even give use of a different browser.  In education he
thinks school children should have at least one experience of
collaborating on free software.

     If we can get people to think about what they can use free software
for, and not just the cost, that will win them over.  Free (no cost)
things are thought of as being low quality.  He agrees with the quote
that proprietary software is as absurd as proprietary geometry.

     You can watch the full video of the talk at the Akademy 2007 video
page [http://home.kde.org/~akademy07/videos/] talk number 1-11.