Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Label Campaign

[Ramana Kumar]

These labels would also be very useful for network services.
In particular I've been surprised by how difficult it was to find out that github is not free (especially because they have a link in their help pages saying "this website is open source", but there's no prominent link to this post http://tom.preston-werner.com/2011/11/22/open-source-everything.html which tells the whole truth. I did my exploring after reading http://mako.cc/writing/hill-free_tools.html.) and bitbucket is not either, but gitorious is.

Gitorious should advertise that fact more, and a label would help!
Same for identica, statusnet etc. (which I only found out about via this list).

On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 9:22 AM, <cryptie@nym.hush.com> wrote:

First, maybe b/c I'm a woman, I prefer a logo which is either color or B&W. On posters, flyers and website a black and white logo may be less visible.

> The idea that a label can serve to make people's choices more ethical and

> conscious or to spread freedom is simply wrong, and can only lead to the
> opposite result...

I agree. But that wasn't what I suggested.
The idea is not to manipulate a choice with a label, but to facilitate
the choosing (hopefully in favour for free software).
The premise is that people value the idea of free software already, but
have a hard time recognizing it for various reasons.

There is a lot of "free software" that you can not identify in a glance. And even if WE can identify it (seeing a "GPL license" while furiously looking for it), it will be so hidden and/or cryptic that Miss Joe will not be able to find out.
One example :
Today a friend of mine send me a link to a "great open source project", moodle.org (a learning Management System).
On the main page you see the logo of the Open source initiative, which is great but does not imply that moodle.org is free software...
To find out that moodle IS a free software you have either (i) to search especially for the license and deduce that GPL => free software (which is trivial for us but not for my mum...) or (ii) to look at the doc, go to the section "Moodle FAQ" and scroll down to the last subsection "Cost" (?!!!!) to find out that it is free software as an answer to the following question :

How much does it cost to download and use Moodle?

• By way of its GNU General Public License, Moodle is and will remain free to download and use in any way you like. Consider it free like a 'free puppy' that needs care and attention to grow, not free like a 'free beer'.