Boycotting the Government

[pi3.1415926535...]

Many times, specifically in RMS's speeches, it is suggested that one boycotts companies that promote proprietary standards and digital restrictions. The U.S. Government does these things, though it is rather a different matter to boycott them than, say, Microsoft. What can be done instead to cause change in addition to voting, something in the way of petitions etc. Voting is often ineffective, because most people consider other issues to be far more important than digital rights, so politicians do not campaign with stance on these issues.

Thank you

[Dustin2128]

uh.. yeah... how does that even work? boycotting != petitioning.

[pi3.1415926535...]

Sorry for not being more clear, I was referencing that it is difficult/impossible to boycott the government, so one would have to look at alternatives to that.

Thank you

[jerenept]

not paying taxes? civil disobiedience? idk...

[3Miro]

Petitions is one thing, however, lobbing (as in campaign donations in exchange for legislature support) is one thing we can do. Unfortunately it requires money.

Another thing is that instead of money, Linux clubs can help politicians with campaigns. We are generally more savvy in computers and Internet and such, what is small effort for us can cost lots of money for the campaign and thus we can help politicians in exchange for FOSS support.

[Johnsie]

In a democracy you just have to accept the rules laid down by the vocal minority. I say minority because most people don't actually vote and of those that do the winning candidate normally only gets around half of those votes. All you can do is campaign against such policies by informing the public and challenging the politicians.

Educating people about the benefits of open source is a good start. Training people how to use the open source stuff is also important. Most people's fear of open source is because they don't know how to use it.

[Quadunit404]

It's funny because doesn't the US Government rely on Red Hat and open source? So if you're trying to boycotting them for not using open source, then you're really not boycotting them for anything.

[pi3.1415926535...]

Well there still is room for improvement. For example they distribute documents in proprietary formats.

[NovaAesa]

I thought it was easy to boycott a government... it's called moving to a different country.

[MisterGaribaldi]

Ideally, the U.S. Government, except for its own necessary utilization of technology, really ought not to be involved in any of this. The last thing any of us needs is a government which screws everything else up sticking their nose into yet another area of commerce and private, individual decision.

An educated, informed public is an empowered public. That's where we as a community really need to spend our effort.

Why is it everyone thinks all solutions have to come down from government?

[pi3.1415926535...]

Mainly because the government have the power and the resources to make large-scale change, alternatively large companies such as Google, which already does this to an extent, can help publicize and make standard open software.