Twenty Years of Free Software: What Now? -by Richard Stallman. It was twenty years ago on Monday that I quit my job at MIT to begin developing a free software operating system, GNU. While we have never released a complete GNU system suitable for production use, a variant of the GNU system is now used by tens of millions of people who mostly are not aware it is such. Free software does not mean "gratis"; it means that users are free to run the program, study the source code, change it, and redistribute it either with or without changes, either gratis or for a fee. My hope was that a free operating system would open a path to escape forever from the system of subjugation which is proprietary software. I had experienced the ugliness of the way of life that non-free software imposes on its users, and I was determined to escape and give others a way to escape. [GrokLaw]

6:29:05 PM    

The Economist on Coffeehouses, Blogs and Freedom. The Internet in a Cup lays out the similarities between the coffee-houses of the 17th and 18th centuries and the free flow of information across the Internet. I'm going to go warm up my cup before I finish the article,... [Channeling Cupertino]

4:38:22 PM    

Adopt a Campaign Journalist in 2004: The Drift of a Suggestion. Over the holidays, an idea gained some Net traction: webloggers "adopting" a campaign reporter. That means you monitor and collect all the reporter's work, and then... And then what? Follow the turns as the suggestion is taken up. [Blogcritics]

6:50:15 AM    

Freethinking.   I still love the idea of the US going from a population of 290 m to well over 500 m in the next 15 years using a work-to-citizenship program.  Imagine bringing 210 m of the most motivated, intelligent, and capable people in the world to the US (regardless of proximity to US borders).  Our economy would boooooom (can you say double digit growth rates).  The social security and budget failures would fade to oblivion as young workers outpace retired workers 15 to 1 (or more).  The trade deficit would reverse!  Offshoring would disappear.  Real estate prices would zoom to provide monster nest eggs for current residents.  It would even help the rest of the world as these people flowed back to their countries of origin with money, experience, and connections (to the US).  The perception of the US globally would shift mightily in the right direction. [John Robb's Weblog]

6:47:54 AM    

My God...the Bush admin has just come up with a progressive idea...what planet am I on??

Whitehouse.gov:  The President proposes that the Federal Government offer temporary worker status to undocumented men and women now employed in the United States and to those in foreign countries who have been offered employment here. The workers under temporary status must pay a one-time fee to register in the program, abide by the rules, and return home after their period of work expires. There would be an opportunity for renewal. In the future, only people outside the U.S. may join the temporary worker program, and there will be an orderly system in place to address the needs of workers and companies. [John Robb's Weblog]

6:41:52 AM    

Doc.  New Economy Hack:  Turning Consumers into Producers.  Want to see results? Check out Bush in 30 Seconds, by MoveOn.org, the left-wing, grass-roots issue advocacy organization. These are first-rate TV ads produced mostly by amateurs, in a short period of time. Regardless of your politics, you have to agree that they're equal in quality to anything put out by a high-priced agency or production house. [John Robb's Weblog]

6:39:40 AM    

O'Reilly Digital Democracy Teach-In: Monday, February 9, 2004. More good news on Internet Democracy. Technical publisher Tim O'Reilly and O'Reilly Publishing will be hosting a Digital Democracy Teach-In on February 9th at the Westin Horton Plaza hotel in San Diego. Here's the short description from the O'Reilly site:... [Channeling Cupertino]

6:39:14 AM