[vox-if] January IF report, any upcoming planned?

[Christopher James McKenzie]

Bob Scofield wrote:
> How about the Math Department?  It seems like at least three LUGOD members 
> work for the Math Dept.; a couple of them doing computer support work there 
> (if I'm not mistaken).  That's odd about the CS club.
> 
Math people aren't very social nor really outgoing.  Some are 
politically active, like a man named Darius - but even in his case, he's 
very quiet and behind the scenes.

> 1)  Anarchists-
> 
> One thing you can point out to the anarchists is that Debian and K/Ubuntu have 
> an anarchism package.  This is no joke.  Debian has a large package on 
> anarchism under the documentation section.  At the last Whole Earth Festival 
> there was a group of anarchists from Modesto with a large table.  If they 
> show up this year, maybe we can hit them with some literature.

This should be a general goal.  The bazaar model of software development 
("Cathedral and Bazaar", Eric S. Raymond) is by it's very nature, 
anarchist.  Ideally, contributions last through what could be called 
"software darwinism" where having resources or authority really don't 
get you anywhere.

In the manufacturing of tools, this is the ideal; the merits of the tool 
should be considered as opposed to the merits of the manufacturer of the 
tool.

The internet is full of examples of functional anarchism, and painfully 
highlights it's major flaw in this field: unqualified people are usually 
the ones determining merit.

But in as much as people are passionate about anarchism, they should be 
passionate about something like Linux.

> 2)  Libertarians-
> 
> I assume that there are already a lot of libertarians using Linux.  I wouldn't 
> be surprised if this were the case given the technological notoriety that the 
> Ron Paul supporters have gotten during the election campaign.

Libertarian is fairly close to anarchism with the exception of a 
willingness to respect a legitimately selected authority with integrity, 
as opposed to the anarchist view of discarding the notion of authority 
outright.

There are just more libertarians then anarchists, so I mentioned that...

> 3)  Greens-
> 
> I have been pleasantly surprised over the year at the number of Yolo County 
> Greens that use Linux.  Some of these people have left the area.  I have 
> forwarded several IF announcements to the Yolo Green Announcement list over 
> the years including a couple of announcements recently.  And a few years ago 
> I sent out a four part essay on why Greens should be using Linux.  (I wonder 
> if I can find that.)

Once again, the greens are fairly similar to the two above --- but they 
expect a very high level of ethical and moral fortitude from everyone.

In a way, you can call it the three faces of anti-authoritarianism - 
which, going back to the principles and politics behind Linux, I think 
would make them fit well together.  Additionally, they don't really hate 
each other - which is always good.

> 
> Tonight I will send your most recent announcement, with a little message, out 
> to the Central Greens list.  The Central Greens list goes to people from 
> Bakersfield to the Oregon border.  I will offer to meet any out of towners 
> and escort them to the IF site.
> 

Thanks