Monmouth students tackle open source options

Two Monmouth College students, Freddy Martinez and Edward Miller are holding a seminar to discuss the idea of open source. A very potent idea in the information age, open source is, in essence, the sharing of the specific means of production. That means when a person, business, or even non-profit organization makes a product, they let anyone who is interested see exactly how they created it. Consequently, anyone can reproduce their product, for example if a chair company creates a chair, a poor business man in Ghana can learn how they made it and start a chair factory. Another such example is Current TV, students may have seen it on channel 34, which is based on the idea of only viewers sending in content, in essence the source of the television network is open to all users. Ed Miller will be the one delving into the history, ideology and applications of free and open source and explain the phrase “Free as in beer, free as in speech.”

Another large component of open source extends into technology development, including free licensing. Instead of having the economically challenged pay $150 for computer software or get it illegally, there are plenty of free alternatives. In the realm of projects with limited budgets, the idea of reliable technology allows for the world to become more computer-literate without taking a big hit in the pocket. This lecture aims to educate the average person in open source, and requires no special understanding of open source. The lecture will begin at 4 p.m. in the Barnes Electronic Classroom located in the basement of Hewes Library on Friday, Nov. 17th, and will last approximately an hour.