2013/5/20 Angela Fuß <angela.f...@das-netzwerkteam.de>: > Hej Miriam, > >> Free Software is about meritocracy and elitism, or at least it >> pretends to be. > > Can you explain that part a bit more? > Is that something that you sense or think how it is? > Or is it something that people say about Free Software or Debian? > Does Debian want to be a community with meritocracy and elitism in your point > of view? > > I think I do not really get what you want to say with that sentence. And as I > consider it a very interesting statement I thought I better ask....
Well, it is generally considered that Free Software projects are a meritocracy [1], meaning that "an elite group of people whose progress is based on ability and talent rather than on class privilege or wealth" [2]. Ideally, whenever a project is ruled by pure meritocracy, people would occupy a position in it according to their capacities, work, effort and results, instead of being randomly positioned. As nice as this idea might be, there's a big part of it that it's just part of a myth [3]: "If you have the right background, and contribute in the right area in the right way, FOSS actually can act as a meritocracy, and frequently does". Meritocracy in Free Software is a myth in the same sense as fairness and equality in occidental societies, or objectivity in science. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meritocracy#Free_.2F_open_source_software_projects [2] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/meritocracy [3] https://observatorio.iti.upv.es/resources/new/6565 Greetings, Miry -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-women-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/cafotxvnaiovcy+npb+ra-9x+opp7-q01wxngbeebjuweyub...@mail.gmail.com
