Open Source Software

What do the candidates think of free software (open source) and online applications? Also, what do you think of this forum being hosted in France by a business that has actively concealed its contact details, instead of simply installing phpBB on a phonecoop webserver, or asking one of the webmaster cooperatives to host a forum?

MJR wrote:What do the candidates think of free software (open source) and online applications? Also, what do you think of this forum being hosted in France by a business that has actively concealed its contact details, instead of simply installing phpBB on a phonecoop webserver, or asking one of the webmaster cooperatives to host a forum?

Hello MJR - I'm very much in favour of open source software and use several programs myself, including the excellent Firefox web-browser and Thunderbird e-mail application. Of course the best solutions for individuals are not necessarily the best for businesses like the Phone Co-op. The board have quite rightly in my view generally left the decisions about software to the management team. The only time I can recall the board becoming involved in the decision process over the past 9 years was in connection with our billing and customer management software, because of its importance to our business and the level of expenditure required.

I think it's difficult for candidates to respond to the second part of your question, because we just don't know why this hosting business was chosen instead of using a Phone Co-op web-server, or a web-master co-operative. I have therefore just sent an e-mail to the Society Secretary asking this question. I'd therefore like to reserve my comments until I've received a response.

Peter Turnbull

MJR wrote:What do the candidates think of free software (open source) and online applications? Also, what do you think of this forum being hosted in France by a business that has actively concealed its contact details, instead of simply installing phpBB on a phonecoop webserver, or asking one of the webmaster cooperatives to host a forum?

The internet is the most modern instance of a general rule that it is very hard to make money out of intellectual property. People have been trying to enclose and cultivate intellectual property for hundreds of years with copyrights, patents etc but it always tends to leak and escape. To protect these artificial property rights requires an army of lawyers, and only large and monopolistic businesses can afford this. Open source, on the other hand, cuts with the grain of intellectual property that it is free as air. It takes an act of faith to give source code away, but the results are inherently better and it doesn't stop the developers making a living - it is just that they cannot earn monopoly rents. I have just downloaded an open-source virus checker; if I felt I had the technical ability I would use Linux rather than Windows. Jim Robertson

As to the second question, I know nothing about this! Sorry.

I'm a fan of free software etc and want it to stay! I was persuaded earlier this year by a serious thinker to the view that the entire internet is a sort of co-operative - and that idea has grown on me, pleasurably.

I don't know anything about the business in France to which you refer - but if it is relevant to the affairs of the Phone Co-op then I would expect (nay - Demand!) that the management should provide me with Training which deals with everything I need to know. I regard Training as important and essential because nobody can know everything.

In my case I make no claim to be any sort of technical person in the telecomms field. But I'm a fast learner.

James E Siddelley

James E Siddelley wrote:I don't know anything about the business in France to which you refer ...

Sorry, I should have put this in more detail: it's called "forumotion.net" and you can see it in the web address of this forum (as phonecoop.board-directory.net). Feel free to prove me wrong and discover who/what they are, but it's not on their main website and it's not on their domain name registration details. Currently on their main website are links to forums they host called http://sarahpalin.forumotion.net www.americangunowners.net and http://thehuntinglodge.forumotion.co.uk - even without technical knowledge, anyone can see they're the same hosting service because they mostly have similar addresses and the same "Free forum ... Report an abuse ... Create a free blog" footers as this one.

Just who/what business are we putting the phonecoop name besides here? Was it a deliberate decision or has someone goofed and what steps should we take to stop it happening again?

By the way, other, larger, longer-established cooperatives are doing the same sort of thing, so don't feel too bad about it. I'm asking similar questions of the other co-ops, but I feel thephonecoop should be helping lead on ethical online trading - or am I letting my personal involvement (as a webmaster cooperative member) cloud my views too much?

The forum hosting provider is providing the service for free, and given that it will only be operational for a month this seemed the best option. We weren’t aware of any co-operative forum hosting providers at the time it was arranged, but this will certainly be an option if we arrange a forum in the future. However, our web site is being re-designed and it is likely that a forum will be a feature of the new design.
It is true that the internet is an international community and all forum hosters will find themselves hosting organisations with widely differing points of view, but we did not feel that because the company was a French company it was necessarily an unethical one or that it should be a barrier to using the most convenient and cost effective forum hosting provider that could be found.

Jane Avery wrote:we did not feel that because the company was a French company it was necessarily an unethical one or that it should be a barrier to using the most convenient and cost effective forum hosting provider that could be found.

It's not unethical because it's French - that's simply all I could find out about it! It may be unethical because it is actively concealing its business details and advertising all sorts of dubious pro-gun, anti-abortion (and so on) forums. Did anyone check it?

But I really don't know what to say to the apparent suggestion that ethics should not "be a barrier to using the most convenient and cost effective forum hosting provider that could be found" - should thePhoneCo-op's customers apply the same idea and all switch broadband to the cheapest provider with a quick sign-up?

To me, the obvious forum host would have been www.co-opnet.coop - I wonder if they'd create a board for TPC on there for free, if that's a requirement.

Mixed feelings on the forum only being for a month or two - would any candidates like to see some member forum in the future?