Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Free Software as a brand

[Robert Burrell Donkin]

On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 6:55 PM, Simon Ward<address@hidden> wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 06, 2009 at 05:23:56PM +0000, Tim Dobson wrote:
>> The president of the FSFE is urging a unified brand of "open source"...
>>
>> I guess I support the end point, but not having read his article through
>> completely, I'm a bit surprised to be honest...
>
> I suggest you do this.  Despite Matthew's wording, Greve does not urge a
> unified brand of "open source".  The whole article talks about managing
> the brands of free software and avoiding brand degradation.  Open source
> is included because it is free software; they're linked in both their
> definitions and in peoples' minds.  If the "open source" term is abused,
> it affects free software; if the "free software" term is abused, it
> affects free software.
>
>> I'm cautious...There have been many rebranding's of free software over
>> the years.... open source software, open software, organic software,
>> freedomware, software libre... I'm not sure any have been particularly
>> successful...
>
> "Open source" is actually referred to in the article as "a failed
> re‐branding effort over which its creators lost control".  There is
> suggestion that a single brand for free software may be better, but it
> is in my reading by no means the theme(?) of the article.

open source was an entirely successful rebranding effort whose triumph
was down to the creators losing control :-P

in terms of Free Software, this victory delivers freedom for
developers and a general acknowledgement that distributed open
independent communities can create innovative software

it's time for the Free Software community to stop thinking about that
battle and try to prepare a new battle ground for the next ten years

- robert