[Fsfe-france] Re: The Community is the Company

[TonStanco]

>> Since this is a real Kuhn paradigm shift, it requires a lot of effort to 
>> break free of old ways of understanding the world. The structure will 
>> never make sense looking at it with old eyes and there are a lot of issues 
>> that intersect with it. Going back to first principles and going slow is 
the
>> only way to make sense of it. 
>  
>  I fully agree with you. When first looking at
>  FreeDevelopers.net people think it's a joke. They read around during
>  ten minutes and leave.  

Yes. That is a very common behaviour. But FreeDevelopers is very serious and 
I think it will surprise a lot of people when it works. 

As I explain it to people, they slowly start to see the logic. But it takes 
effort on my part and on their part to achieve that.

> I can't analyze exactly why. I had the same
> reaction to be honest. Only I read the web site during two hours and
> finaly figured out it's a nice dream to have and it's worth trying to
> make it reality.

It is because it is a dream that people think it is too much to wish for. But 
it is based on very rational principles, even if it looks to good to be true 
from where we stand at the end of the 20th century. It is not unlike people 
who wished for democracy in the 18th century. It too seemed too good to be 
true. Now, we don't understand what took them so long to understand it.

>  I very much see it as Free Software vs proprietary software. When
>  people first heard about Free Software they laughed and left. 15 years ago
>  they would not even give it a second look. Now we stand on more solid
>  grounds but it tooks ages and most people are still very confused by
>  the philosophy of Free Software.

Yes. It is very much like Free Software. In fact, much of the skepticism 
about FreeDevelopers for most people comes from their residual skepticism 
about Free Software. FreeDevelopers is just about giving a commercial form to 
Free Software, so you have to believe that Free Software is the right way to 
go first. 

After people believe that Free Software is the right thing, people then need 
to understand that the world is organized incorrectly for the Intellectual 
Age and needs a new commercial form to let Free Software flourish.

It fundamentally comes down to understanding that the world is wrong about 
software development at this time, not that Free Software is wrong, so that 
basic things have to change.

>  It needs a lot of patience and talking to spread a new idea.
>  Regarding FreeDevelopers I'm in a similar position as I was 13 years
>  ago when I discovered Free Software. I find it very appealing and I
>  support the idea. However I do not understand enough of it to advocate
>  it myself.  It took me years to actually understand Free Software and
>  become able to talk about it in a sensible way. I expect it will
>  take me some time for FreeDevelopers as well.
>  
>  That's why I asked you to dialog with us on
>  address@hidden and address@hidden It will help
>  improve my level of understanding of FreeDevelopers and at the same
>  time it will give a chance to people who are still skeptical to change
>  their mind.

It is a pleasure to dialog on this. This is fun for me ;-) If I don't make 
things clear, please ask me to restate it and make it clearer.