What do Firefox and Social Justice have in common? Eben Moglen's 2006 Plone Conference Keynote

Update: Transcript of the speech has been posted, thanks Geof.

Tonight I sat back with a tofu burrito from Gorditos and a glass of wine to watch Eben Moglen's keynote to the 2006 Plone Conference which my friend Jon has been raving about to me for the past few weeks. Well, he was right to rave.

In this inspiring lecture, Professor Moglen weaves together the industrial revolution, the knowledge economy, the free software movement, the One Laptop Per Child project and the long struggle for human dignity and equality.

Moglen is Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University Law School and the Free Software Foundation's General Counsel. I don't think I've ever been moved by a techno-law geek's presentation on open source licensing before, in fact, I'm sure of it. But this is a moving speech because Moglen is not talking about software licensing as much as a multi-generational movement for social justice that many of my closest friends care deeply about despite their having very little knowledge of technology. As the lecture unfolds, Moglen's commentary invoked memories for me of Martin Luther King's speeches.

I especially laughed when Moglen talked about using questions about Firefox as a teachable moment - because several of my non-technical, social justice friends have asked me in the past "why Firefox?" when I've messed with their computers.  I have a few phone calls to make now to follow up with them.

So, sit back, pretend you are back in college and watch the video or better yet put the mp3 on your iPod or open source music player (you won't miss anything visual - this lecture works great just with audio). It's 56 minutes plus Q & A. I've transcribed some of my favorite quotes below for those that don't have time to watch the whole thing.

There are also links from Archive.org: for Audio MP3 and High bandwidth QuickTime download or YouTube.

Moglen even touches on the future of citizen journalism in the age of the one laptop per child project which I excerpt separately on the NewsCloud blog. Watching his lecture made me feel good about my decision to recently release much of my work from the past two years to the open source community.

Technorati Tags: eben moglen, one northwest, open source, plone

On software for social change:

"Infrastructure improvement has a tendency to improve matters for the poor more rapidly than other forms of economic development. ... Software is creating roadways that bring people who have been far from the center of human social life to the center of social life."

On Microsoft:

"In this neighborhood at this moment, the richest and most deeply funded monopoly in the history of the world is beginning to fail. ... Plus or minus the couple more years left before Microsoft fails entirely, we have now proven either the adequacy or the final superiority in crass economic terms of the way we make things."

On open source:

"The magic of this technology is that it can be used for the great ideal of capitalist distribution: never actually give anybody anything ... just as it can be used for our fundamental purpose which is always give everybody everything."

On social networks such as MySpace and Friendster:

"We are making communities that produce good outputs and other people are looking at them as business models where actual eyeballs are located. Up to a point that's acceptable and when the tipping point is reached it isn't anymore and that's the kind of activity which is now our political challenge. To understand how to manipulate those processes as we all can because we make the technology, how to manipulate those processes so as to gain the social benefit and reduce the possibility of power discrepancies developing that neutralize the very kinds of social justice outcomes we are looking for."

On social justice and open source software:

"If we know that what we are trying to accomplish is the spread of justice and social equality through the universalization of access to knowledge; If we know that what we are trying to do is build an economy of sharing which will rival the economies of ownership at every point where they directly compete; If we know that we are doing this as an alternative to coercive redistribution, that we have a third way in our hands for dealing with long and deep problems of human injustice; If we are conscious of what we have and know what we are trying to accomplish, when this is the moment for the first time in lifetimes, we can get it done."

Comments

[Greg]

"richest and most deeply funded monopoly in the history of the world is beginning to fail"

I haven't watched/listened to the keynote yet, but I did want to throw this in here (since I haven't written on my blog in about a year...).

Yes, I use Firefox because IE sucks balls. However, I in no way, shape or form see Microsoft as evil. The thing I've heard (and no, Gates didn't say this) that I really like is that Microsoft is a great white shark. Sharks aren't evil. They simply need to grow, and in order to do that, they have to EAT! :-)

[jeff]

Greg, thanks. Please take a look at my article Citizen Microsoft which delves into this topic more deeply.

http://www.idealog.us/2004/09/new_microsoft_a.html

[Petrus]

I'm becoming extremely tired of Moglen/the FSF's constant focus on Microsoft as the source of all that is evil in the world...it's entirely consistent with their "four legs good, two legs bad," or "us versus them," type of mentality.

Aside from anything else, it's entirely unnecessary. One area where I *do* agree with Moglen is that I've believed for more than ten years now that Microsoft to at least a large degree will no longer exist by 2015.

Back when the FSF were still actually about software, I was still able to think of them as a good thing, and they still would be if the GNU project itself was what they focused on. Unfortunately however, they've felt a need to go beyond that and start engaging in an abstract sociological crusade, which primarily deals in wedge issues and fear mongering, and doesn't really help anyone.

The software they provide is good. I just wish they could stick to that, and leave the moralising and the cultic use of the word "community," behind...because although they might not be willing to accept it, they're not doing themselves, or the rest of us, any favours with it.

[Chris Webber]

Actually Jeff, the FSF has been fairly conscious of the fact that Microsoft is NOT the source of all the world's evil, and the danger of that mentality. See this publication Stallman made, which warned against precisely that:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/microsoft.html

[jeff]

I was speaking more generally of Microsoft Chris. Thanks for the link though.