Marco Fioretti

Bio

I am a freelance writer and teacher. Most of my activities and studies are about Free Software, open digital standards, digital technologies and the their relations and impact on education, ethics, civil rights and environmental issues. I started studying and writing about all this around 2001/2002 and it became a full time job in 2008. Before 2008, I worked as ASIC/FPGA and system designer with a major telecom equipment manufacturer.

I am a member of the OpenDocument Fellowship and Digistan, two organizations that promote open digital standards. Being Catholic, in 2006 I started with others the [file:///C:/Users/vaio/AppData/Local/Temp/Temp1_mfioretti_icc_berlin_html%5B1%5D.zip/Technology Eleutheros Project for a Catholic Approach to Information]. My slogan is that your civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how software is used around you. These days, I study and teach about Open Government, Open Data and open, quality Education, because I become more and more convinced as time passes that you simply can't have the first two without the third. I teach about these topics both in presence and online, and write as much as I can about them at Stop!/Zona-M and other websites.

My approach to ICC 2010

One of the reasons why I am interested in ICC2010 comes from being Catholic. I will participate as an individual. I have no entitlement at all to speak for any Catholic institution, nor have I studied theology, history of Catholic philosophy and similar disciplines. I have read a few recent Catholic documents about Intellectual Property and degrowth. With Eleutheros, I am trying to raise interest inside the Catholic community towards publication of modern Bible translations and other important "official" documents with open licenses (see Eleuthero's Manifesto below) and not rising artificial digital barriers, for example streaming Catholic multimedia content (which by definition should be universal) in ways that are only accessible with new, eg. expensive, computers and expensive broadband connectivity.

Another side of ICC2010 that, due to my past experience as digital hardware designer I find interesting is the track about "Design and Manufacturing Commons"

In general, I am particularly interested in techniques and strategies to inform many people and stimulate/help them to make little changes. One thing that interests me a lot in the conference program is "explore how the commons can "go mainstream"". This because number matters. Convincing one out of 100 or 1000 "normal" people that only watch broadcast TV to do something for the Commons (even if it's just shopping twice a month at a local farmers cooperative), or don't use their car for trips <3km to keep the transport commons, e.g. the roads, free for those who need them more... makes a much bigger impact in a shorter time than a few integralists living carbon neutral in a farm. One thing must not exclude the other.

Publications relevant to the conference

• the Eleutheros Manifesto

• Free Software's surprising sympathy with Catholic doctrine:

• A Free Software Manifesto for the rest of us

• Seven things we're tired of hearing from software hackers

• How to transform into Free SW supporters people who couldn't care less

• Bit prepared: the missing link between Free Software and Scouting

• Interview to Richard Stallman about Scouting and Free Software

• About "Design and Manufacturing Commons": Thoughts on the P2P production and deployment of physical objects

• About data commons: Open Data, Open Society: a research project about openness of public data in EU local administrations