[SIGCIS-Members] Fwd: When was first campaign for computer users' freedom

[Ian S. King]

Perhaps, but perhaps not in the manner you intended to express.
"Campaigning for freedom" sounds like a high-level political activity
(not criticizing, just categorizing), while "empowering people" sounds
like a subversive (in a good way) activity that enables the
actualization of freedom, i.e. the end goal of allowing entities to
create and control their own destinies, that is, their own software.
In other words: if I don't like your UI or your implementation of an
algorithm, I'll write my own, because I can.  (Consider that I
routinely work with machines whose users commonly wrote directly to
the hardware.)  If They cannot constrain my expression, am I not free?
 -- Ian

On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 11:16 AM, Richard Stallman <rms at gnu.org> wrote:
> Empowering people with knowledge or capacities is a fundamentally
> different idea from campaigning for freedom.
>
> --
> Dr Richard Stallman
> President, Free Software Foundation
> 51 Franklin St
> Boston MA 02110
> USA
> www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org
> Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
>   Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call
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-- 
Ian S. King, MSCS ('06, Washington)
Ph.D. Student
The Information School
University of Washington