Two years ago this November on a trip to Washington D.C. I was talking to my friend’s roommate about politics. The democrats had just just gained control of the house of representatives and the senate in the U.S. general elections.

The guy pointed to the senator being interviewed on television and said that he thought one day that man, Joe Biden, would be president. It seemed unlikely when he dropped out of the primary race after finishing fifth in Iowa earlier this year, but at least now it is an indirect possibility. (more…)

Tim writes about what he considered the most important message delivered at an open source conference. That is advocating for open source by using the term “secret software” for proprietary software.

It seems like a George Lakoff-style tactic of using choice of words and metaphor to frame an issue.

It’s simple: when data is gathered and used for the people as part of civic processes (voting is a good example), processing it using secret software, especially if it’s a private-sector secret, should be totally out of bounds.

This is very closely aligned to the struggle for the use of open-source software where appropriate, but “Open Source” is a term of art and is associated with ill-groomed inarticulate geeks who have odd opinions about lots of things. “Secret software” is a term that anyone can understand instantly [...]
– No Secret Software! ongoing 27 Jul 2008