Hello,
every couple of years I point out to (parts of) this group how tremendous important it is to finalize what has been begun as GNU Business Network Definition [1].
It seems I am not the only one who cares [2].
As an example take my newest problem I have because of the absense of a good and official definition:
A large fair plans to have a special area for companies offering Free Software solutions. Many companies apply that I personally regard as hostile against the Free Software concept. We have no guide to give to the organizers upon which they can simply say who's accepted for the area and who does not qualify. It would have been good to prevent the hijacking of the area by a big marketing budget of companies who at best haven't understood at all about freedom in software and its commercial vitality and customer benefit.
Best
Jan
[1] http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/gnubiz-disc/2000-December/000014.html [2] http://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/maffulli/rants/defining_free_software_busines...
On Fri, 2006-06-02 at 15:22 +0200, Jan-Oliver Wagner wrote:
As an example take my newest problem I have because of the absense of a good and official definition:
there is quite some debate about FSB in Italy lately. Another debate sparked and is followed on: http://www.gnuvox.info/index.php/2006/06/02/free_software_business_questo_sc...
There is also this site that somehow is related to the argument: http://www.openbusiness.cc/2006/05/20/what-is-an-openbusiness/
As I say in my post on fsfe.org, the definition should revolve around the concept of 'ethics' and 'free software ethics' in particular. The problem so far with this definition is that only a couple of companies in the world would fit in this definition :)
/stef