The Family Guide to Digital Freedom, 2008 version

The Family Guide to Digital Freedom
Agenda
 Speaker introduction
 Note on the nature of this talk
 Role of software and digital technologies in society
 What is being done to address the related problems
 What I am trying to do and why
 How I am doing it
 Obstacles I have found
 Conclusion
Quito, Congreso Internacional “Software Libre y Democratización del Conocimiento October 21-24, 2008 1
Marco Fioretti ttp://mfioretti.net marco@digifreedom.net

Speaker introduction
 Marco Fioretti (marco@digifreedom.net)
 freelance writer, activist and teacher about open digital standards, Free Software, digital technologies and the their
relations and impact on education, ethics, civil rights and environmental issues.
 Regular contributor of Linux.com, Linux Journal, LinuxFormat and other online and printed magazines
 Author of the Family Guide to Digital Freedom (http://digifreedom.net)
 Memberships:
− www.digistan.org: free and open digital standards for overall growth in the global economy
− www.eleutheros.it: a Catholic Approach to Information Technology (co-founder)
− www.OpenDocumentFellowship.com: adoption, use and development of the OpenDocument format
− www.RULE-project.org (Run Up to date Linux Everywhere, co-founder)
 Home page: http://mfioretti.net
Marco Fioretti http://mfioretti.net marco@digifreedom.net

Note on the nature of this talk
● The Family Guide to Digital Freedom is not an experience of usage of Free
Software in the alternative sector
● It is an experience of
● Promoting digital awareness and (among other things) Free Software in an
alternative, complementary way
● Attempting to bring an Open Source attitude to circles and contexts where it is
still almost totally absent

Role of software and digital technologies in society
 Software and digital technologies are essential in modern life
 They influence practically everything we and our children do, from
job opportunities to energy bills and active democracy
 The quality of our lives and our civil rights heavily depend on how
software is used around us!
 This is true even for children, senior citizen and everybody who
doesn't own or ever uses computers

What is being done to address the related problems
 Current efforts (FSF, FFII...) are mostly aimed at geeks and specialists
 In 2006/2007 the FSF did start some efforts to involve “social
activists”...
 ...but it still seems to focus only on the ICT staff of structured
organizations
(cfr “Help everybody love Free standards and Free Software!”,
http://www.ukuug.org/newsletter/16.3/#help__marco)

What is being done to address the related problems (2)
 Is this enough? In my opinion, NO.
 Personally, I feel that all those initiatives are good, but not sufficient
 I fear they may be too little, too late
− This concept is discussed in more detail in my talk “Perspectives
of Free SW as a Social Movement”

What I am trying to do
 The theme of this Congress is
“Free Software and Democratization of Knowledge”
 I am working to promote a democratization of the activism and
educational initiatives which aim to guarantee civil rights and active
citizenship through the use of digital technologies

What I am trying to do (2)
 I am trying to involve directly two very large groups of “social
activists” which:
− are and act everywhere
− act earlier than other groups when it comes to create digital
awareness and responsibility in younger generations
− have been largely ignored, so far, by the FSF and other groups of
Free Software and digital rights activists

What I am trying to do (3)
 These two groups are:
− Parents
− Teachers
 They have to start playing an active role:
− both as digital educators, towards their children and students
− And personally, that is choose responsibly whenever they vote
about, or buy, digital products or services

Why is this important?
 Because doing otherwise would be greatly diminish the probabilities of
using digital technologies to build a truly open society
(see my talk “Perspectives of Free SW as a Social Movement”)
 Because education about digital issues is not technical, but is civic
education, that is something that:
− children should learn as soon as possible
− responsile parents and teachers have always been bound to teach anyway
− has solutions whose nature is not technical (fairness, equal
opportunities, saving tax money...)

Why is this important? (2)
 It is not possible to achieve the necessary change soon enough without
the involvement of parents, teachers and all other non-geeks citizens
 For all these reasons, parents and teachers:
 Must all become educators about the impact of digital
technologies on everybody's life
 Must be involved in the initiatives and lobbying which today
are still, de-facto, the monopoly of a techno-savy elite

How can they do it?
 Parents and teachers can turn themselves into digital activists if they:
− Have the right motivations
− Receive the right information, in a format which is immediately:
 understandable
 usable and necessary in daily life (e.g. when voting or choosing
their children's school
 relevant

Which information must be provided?
 Balanced information which
− avoids excesses and fanatism, even if only at the verbal level
− doesn't require advanced technical skills
− shows relationships among apparently unrelated issues, e.g. software and
energy consumption
− ... and the real importance of each of the factors (infrastructures, laws,
software licenses...) which influence them
(continues...)

Which information must be provided? (2)
 Balanced information which:
 does promote Free Software
 but is NOT centered on it
 doesn't assume that everybody wants to be a programmer
(avoid words like source code or software license as much as possible)
 or that everybody should ever contribute directly to Free Software, in
any way
Cfr the “Seven things we're tired of hearing from Software Hackers”,
http://digifreedom.net/node/56

What I am doing to provide this information
 A book: the Family Guide to Digital Freedom
http://digifreedom.net/node/84
− Content: the 50 things every parent should know about software and
digital technologies
− Divided in:
− Digital Dangers
− Solutions (what to know and what to do)
 Forum and online community at digifreedom.net
 Other educational material

Obstacles I have found
 So far, this initiative has met both successes and failures
 The one main obstacle is always the same
− Using the right words and attitude, explaining single technical issues to
people without any technical background is (relatively) easy
− The real difficult part is to make such people understand that it really is
in their interest, and part of their teacher/parent responsibilities, to
engage in these conversations and act in these fields

Conclusion
 Involving all parents and teachers in discussions about digital rights is still very difficult
because of cultural and demographical reasons
− most parents and other adults of today grew up without any exposure to these issues or relevant
education: computers are still considered black magic boxes
 Nevertheless, turning parent and teachers into digital activists remains a necessary and urgent
task
− today there is a huge market push to use computers and cell phones no-stop, everywhere, but only in
a passive way, to receive advertising and other instructions
 Everybody should try to involve teachers and parents in the schools of his or her
neighborhood
 Let's meet at http://digifreedom.net to discuss these issues and coordinate our efforts

The Family Guide to Digital Freedom, 2008 version

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