Reflection #4

Week 5: Article "The GNU Manifesto", "The Second Superpower Rears it's Beautiful Head", "The Cluetrain Manifesto"

The "GNU Manifesto" article is my favorite article because I have never heard of GNU's before and after reading this article, I think it might be a great idea. The open source software movement is of particular interest to us as communication scholars and also as members of society. As communication scholars, we can study the effects of the movement and as a society we can benefit from the legal obtaining of software since many now obtain it illegally. I am sure many businesses might not see this as an overall solution but if businesses want support with their software, they can pay for it seperatly as the article brings out. The only part of this equation that seems less feasible is getting a tax on software to help with funding. This seems quite optimistical to me because government can be difficult. :)

This social movement or a "second superpower" focuses on the will of the people as the "The Second Superpower Rears it's Beautiful Head" article mentions. It reminds me that community can act MUCH faster than government. The internet creates global dialogue were ideas arise and if caught, get passed on. Patterns are created and PRESTO- a new form of deliberation has just happened. I think it's really cool how the individual can play such an important role in such a deliberation whereas that same individual can be more easily overlooked in governmental systems. "The Cluetrain Manifesto" is like taking ideas of networked markets and stating their positives out. I didn't care for the list of ideas instead of combining them into a more article format.

Discussion Questions:

* Do you think the pro's outweigh the con's of implementing an open source software movement?
* Because the internet has allowed communities to deliberate quickly, will the traditional democracy evolve to resemble the internet process?
* Will trends of GNU's become popular enough to happen by 2020?