Dan Gillmor is ruffling some heavyweight feathers again, this time with his newest
opinion piece in ComputerWorld. The biggest issue related to information and technology is the issue of control. I heartily agree.
"Technology vendors strive for lock-in. They lock us in with obvious tricks, such as Microsoft with its file formats, a monopoly mechanism as pervasive as its Windows desktop control. They control us with digital rights management (DRM, more properly called digital restrictions management) schemes that force us to break the law to make backups or even to quote from other works...
[T]he open-source advantage in the freeing of data and choice. Portability is the most essential escape valve in any data relationship. If you can move it without incurring massive costs, you have leverage. If you can't, you don't. With open-source products, you do...
The technology and entertainment industries don't believe in such rights. For everyone's sake, I hope IT will fight back, and hard."