While the Free Software/Open Source movement is based on an essential and timeless concept — that users of software should be self-sovereign in that

Getting Back to a Social Frame — Webmink In Draft

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2023-02-07 16:00:07

While the Free Software/Open Source movement is based on an essential and timeless concept — that users of software should be self-sovereign in that software — the linguistic frame in which it was positioned long ago continues to have some unfortunate consequences that ironically distract from the very goals the frame sought to achieve.

When you say to a native English speaker that something is “free”, their first and dominant thought will be about the price of the thing in question. “Free? I don't have to pay?” They may well do on to say “That sounds cheap – and nasty!” Yes, it is possible to redirect that initial impression to other ways of understanding “free” (“no, I mean free as in freedom”), but George Lakoff explained long ago that the initial linguistic “palette” from which we paint colours the interpretation of all future conceptual metaphors in the conversation – the initial metaphor sets a frame that constrains future discussion. Things are further complicated by the fact that, as it turns out the source code is indeed available without paying – in many cases as an installable binary – not as a goal but as a consequence of the embodied liberties.

As a result, when “free software” is invoked in English by a non-specialist, nuance concerning the liberty of the individual as self-sovereign in software is lost, and subsequent usage tends to be argued within a “price frame” not a “liberty frame”. The dominant argument for at least a decade of the shift of free/open source to dominance was that free software is cheaper, saves money, doesn't require payment for licenses and so on. This led to emphasis on donating to projects, with even ambiguous terms like “contribute” and “give back” being understood monetarily – in terms of delivering compensatory value that is detached from social engagement or the enjoyment of software freedoms.

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