In the above video from PBS’s Idea Channel, Mike Rugnetta proposes the following seemingly radical idea: That everything, in particular instructions and information about manufacturing and technology, should be open source. But is this idea really all that radical?
Because of the way today’s technologies are constantly growing and evolving, several aspects of our daily life are becoming increasingly complex, and specific, often inaccessible knowledge is needed in order to keep up with the times. However, copyright laws and acts created to protect specific intellectual property tend to overlook actual human needs and desires in favor of products and companies. Copyright laws serve to protect and restrict access to the intellectual property of these market heads, and as a result, even though things like cars and smart phones are an integral part of every day life, they often come with limited functionality and customization options for those who have or want more specific ideas about what these devices should do.
According to the mission statement of the open source movement, “we can learn more from each other when information is open. A free exchange of ideas is critical to creating an environment where people are allowed to learn and use existing information toward creating new ideas.” The goal of this movement is to promote the sharing of ideas by making source material more easily and legally accessible to anyone. The idea with the specifics of this movement is to help level the playing field and inspire more people to be able to create and customize programs and devices to their liking. However, the philosophies of the open source movement can be applied more generally to other aspects of life, as expressed in the video from Idea Channel, from the source materials for buildings or robots all the way to visual art and music.
As an artist, the core concept of the open source movement makes a lot of sense to me. Although I would be less impacted by cell phone and car schematics becoming freely available, the animation software Toonz, now known as OpenToonz, recently became open source for anyone to use, facilitating the common use a critical resource in a market full of growing competition. For someone who believes that knowledge and education should be easily accessible for anyone willing to put in the effort, and that having freely available knowledge would benefit both individuals and businesses, the basis of the open source movement fits perfectly in line with those ideals.
Amberry Jam 