Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2010/06/23/open-source.html

(These days, ) I generally try to avoid the well-known terminology
debates in our community. But, if you hang around this FLOSS world of
ours long enough, you just can’t avoid occasionally getting into them.
I found myself in one this afternoon
that spanned
three identica
threads. I had some new thoughts that I’ve shared today (and even
previously) on my identi.ca
microblog. I thought it might be useful to write them up in one place
rather than scattered across a series of microblog statements.

I gained my first new insight into the terminology issues when I had
dinner with Larry Wall in
early 2001 after my Master’s thesis defense. It was first time I talked
with him about these issues of terminology, and he said that it sounded
like a good place to apply what he called the “golden rule of
network protocols”: Always be conservative in what you emit and
liberal in what you accept.
I’ve recently
noted
again that’s a good rule to follow regarding terminology.

More recently, I’ve realized that the FLOSS community suffers here,
likely due to our high concentration of software developers and
engineers. Precision in communication is a necessarily component of the
lives of developers, engineers, computer scientists, or anyone in a
highly technical field. In our originating fields, lack of precise and
well-understood terminology can cause bridges to collapse or the wrong
software to get installed and crash mission critical systems.
Calling x by the name y sometimes causes mass confusion
and failure. Indeed, earlier this week, I watched
a PBS special, The
Pluto Files,
where Neil
deGrasse Tyson discussed the intense debate about the planetary
status of Pluto. I was actually somewhat relieved that a subtle point
regarding a categorical naming is just as contentious in another area
outside my chosen field. Watching the “what constitutes a
planet” debate showed me that FLOSS hackers are no different than
most other scientists in this regard. We all take quite a bit of pride
in our careful (sometimes pedantic) care in terminology and word choice;
I know I do, anyway.

However, on the advocacy side of software freedom (the part
that isn’t technical), our biggest confusion sometimes stems
from an assumption that other people’s word choice is as necessarily as
precise as ours. Consider the phrase “open source”, for
example. When I say “open source”, I am referring quite
exactly to a business-focused, apolitical and (frankly)
amoral⁰ interest in,
adoption of, and contribution to FLOSS. Those who coined the term
“open source” were right about at least one thing: it’s a
term that fits well with for-profit interests who might otherwise see
software freedom as too political.

However, many non-business users and developers that I talk to quite
clearly express that they are into this stuff precisely because there
are principles behind it: namely, that FLOSS seeks to make a better
world by giving important rights to users and programmers. Often, they
are using the phrase “open source” as they express this. I
of course take the opportunity to say: it’s because those principles
are so important that I talk about software freedom. Yet, it’s
clear they already meant software freedom as a concept, and
just had some sloppy word choice.

Fact is, most of us are just plain sloppy with language. Precision
isn’t everyone’s forte, and as a software freedom advocate (not a
language usage advocate), I see my job as making sure people have the
concepts right even if they use words that don’t make much sense. There
are times when the word choices really do confuse the concepts, and
there are other times when they don’t. Sometimes, it’s tough to
identify which of the two is occurring. I try to figure it out in each
given situation, and if I’m in doubt, I just simplify to the golden rule
of network protocols.

Furthermore, I try to have faith in our community’s intelligence.
Regardless of how people get drawn into FLOSS: be it from the moral
software freedom arguments or the technical-advantage-only open source
ones, I don’t think people stop listening immediately upon their arrival
in our community. I know this even from my own adoption of software
freedom: I came for the Free as in Price, but I stayed for the Free as
in Freedom. It’s only because I couldn’t afford a SCO Unix license in
1992 that I installed GNU/Linux. But, I learned within just a year why
the software freedom was what mattered most.

Surely, others have a similar introduction to the community: either
drawn in by zero-cost availability or the technical benefits first, but
still very interested to learn about software freedom. My goal is to
reach those who have arrived in the community. I therefore try to speak
almost constantly about software freedom, why it’s a moral issue, and
why I work every day to help either reduce the amount of proprietary
software, or increase the amount of Free Software in the world. My hope
is that newer community members will hear my arguments, see my actions,
and be convinced that a moral and ethical commitment to software freedom
is the long lasting principle worth undertaking. In essence, I seek to
lead by example as much as possible.

Old arguments are a bit too comfortable. We already know how to have
them on autopilot. I admit myself that I enjoy having an old argument
with a new person: my extensive practice often yields an oratorical
advantage. But, that crude drive is too much about winning the argument
and not enough about delivering the message of software freedom.
Occasionally, a terminology discussion is part of delivering that
message, but my terminology debate tools box has a “use with
care” written on it.

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⁰ Note that here,
too, I took extreme care with my word choice. I mean specifically
amorality —
merely an absence of any moral code in particular. I do not, by any
stretch, mean immoral.