Giving more people access to a beneficial technology is a laudable goal. I believe this venture is well-intentioned and will be educational for many of the participants.
but...
We need to be aware that the results we intend are often very different from what actually occurs. I would like you all to take a moment to read the latest thoughts of Jaron Lanier, in
this Salon interview. Mr. Lanier is a very wise man who contributed greatly to what has become the internet that we know today. Now, years later, he has seen many of the philosophies that he and his contemporaries espoused being boiled down into a sort of dogma that can be used toward ends that do not benefit us in the way that was intended. Much like the short-sighted reward of low priced imported goods, we may be digging our own graves if we do not stop to consider the long term effects of our actions.
This is a subject that I have given a lot of thought to, since I witness on an almost daily basis people being asked to de-value themselves, professionally and otherwise, for a nebulous claim of greater good. After years of seeing who actually benefits from such arrangements, I can see clearly that virtually any philosophy taken to extremes can become exploitative. My conclusion is that the way I prefer to experience the joy of giving and sharing is to be the initiator. If the recipient has asked, then one is
paying-in to a larger system. To whom that system will
pay-out will be completely out of your control, and you had better be prepared to see it all go into one pocket.
Am I over-thinking a simple open-source project? Perhaps. I would enjoy further discussion of the subject with anyone who has a thought to share, here or in private.