[kde-community] finding a clear vision for KDE - second draft for discussion

[Jaroslaw Staniek]

On 7 March 2016 at 21:43, Alexander Neundorf <neundorf at kde.org> wrote:

> On Thursday, March 03, 2016 04:46:20 Jos Poortvliet wrote:
> > replying on phone. blame faulty text completion/correction for any
> rudeness!
> > On Feb 29, 2016 5:40 PM, "Alexander Neundorf" <neundorf at kde.org> wrote:
> ...
> > > Can we express the "not be at the mercy of some company" clearer than
> > > "have full control" ?
> >
> > But then you have to spell it all out - it isn't just about companies but
> > governments, heck even individuals or charities...
>
> <just thinking>
> now that is an interesting point, being independent from governments.
> More and more services of (local or national) governments are offered
> online.
> Just as on example, assume that some documents would be only available as
> pdf.
> You need at least a device, an operating system, a pdf reader.
> Or other stuff, communicating only via some network service (email ?),
> sending
> in documents in some specific format, etc., etc.
>
> So IMO it should be a goal of a government to enable their citizen to use
> those services using software which is free of cost (at least for their
> citizen), and without having to rely on some company. There are two obvious
> ways to achieve that: software development done by the government, and
> development of free software supported/paid for by  the government.
> </just thinking>
>
> I think "sustainability" describes the concept I have in mind: something
> which
> works at some point in time and you can rely on that it will also work in
> the
> future.
> Don't know how to put that into a vision, maybe something like "a
> sustainable
> ecosystem of software/technology/...
> ​​
> ​​
> which gives everyone full control over
> their digital life" ?
>

I would not depend on theoretical government in our visions. The ones I
​heard about do their best to maximize number of _controlled_ jobs because
they can then "sell" them for power in their internal circles. I've touched
this problem a bit personally too. Just look at healthcare IT backoffice
systems in many countries. One about to be restarted in Poland after 15
years. Or one web form that costed 3B$ in the USA, money went to IBM, the
bigest sponsor of Linux ever.

In this light, consuming FOSS advantages directly is rather evil idea for
these governments as it reduces paid/controlled jobs. And taxes!
​
Regarding full control - I find it a bit pathetic. Todays' extremes cause
that if we just call for "control" and not "full control", we're already
very good.

It'd say we can try to "return people control over their digital life". Not
"everyone" because "everyone" is the new meaningless "nobody".


> Alex
>
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-- 
regards, Jaroslaw Staniek

KDE:
: A world-wide network of software engineers, artists, writers, translators
: and facilitators committed to Free Software development - http://kde.org
Calligra Suite:
: A graphic art and office suite - http://calligra.org
Kexi:
: A visual database apps builder - http://calligra.org/kexi
Qt Certified Specialist:
: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jstaniek
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