FLO

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= acronym for "= free/libre/open source".


Discussion

Devin Balkind:

"Free/Libre/Open (FLO) technologies give their users the right to own, access, use, modify and contribute their source materials. The term is most commonly used to refer to software project like Linux or Wikipedia, but the concept can apply to any type of technology, including software code, encyclopedia entries, business plans, scientific procedures and hardware designs. The accessibility and plasticity of FLO technology allows it to quickly become standardized, enabling individuals and organizations to collaborate on it's further development and to create deeper, more functional, more personalized products and services for themselves, their clients and their communities. Currently, FLO technologies are incorporated into almost all the electronic products and services you use everyday, yet these products and services are not FLO because their producers don't provide you the same rights they were given by the creators of the FLO technologies they use in their products.

The simple fact that FLO technologies are preferable to closed, proprietary ones because they are less expensive, more accessible and facilitate more rapid technology development is rarely brought to the attention of users by the mainsteam media because FLO technologies and the participatory production practices that create them presents not only competition for the media's advertisers, but an existential threat to the entire corporate structure. What would happen if everyone started participating in the production of FLO solutions? What would happen if people had the technologies they needed to produce what they want?

FLO has fundamentally transformed the virtual world by allowing people to share technologies and avoid reinventing the wheel over and over again. When that same transformation reaches the material world, everyone will, for the first time, be able to overcome material scarcity and embrace abundance. That might sounds crazy at first, but abundance is simply a mindset acheived by having more material wealth than one wants. Technology makes this possible because it allows us to create so much more wealth than we ever could before. However, technology can also be used to distort our natural wants into pathologies that make it impossible for us to ever feel like we have enough. Considering how advanced our technologies are and how difficult is it for most of us to meet basic needs for healthy food, dignified shelter and safe spaces to socialize, it's worth considering that we might be focusing our technologies in the wrong places." (http://www.sarapisfoundation.org/index.php/think/inspired-by-openlocalism)