Re: Revealing Errors: How We Can Use Errors to Advocate for Software Freedom and Openness

["Tom Metro-12" <user=71@nabble.blu.org>]

 http://www.blu.org/cgi-bin/calendar/2008-jun

> Anyone who has seen a famous "Blue Screen of Death" on a public 
> screen or terminal knows how errors can thrust the technical details 
> of previously invisible systems into view. Nobody knows that their 
> ATM runs Windows until the system crashes. Of course, the operating 
> system chosen for a sign or bank machine might have important 
> implications for its users. Faced with a crashed ATM, a consumer 
> might ask herself if, with its rampant viruses and security holes, 
> should she really trust an ATM running Windows? 
> 
> Free software and open source advocates have struggled to make their 
> case to "normal users" and have, for the most part, failed to do so. 
> ... Before one can argue for the importance of individual control 
> over technology an audience must first appreciate the power and 
> effect that their technology and its designers have. To understand 
> the power that technology has on its users, users must first see the 
> technology in question. Before you can understand why a webserver 
> should be free, you need to understands what a webserver is.