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This blog is dedicated to the myriad of Open-Source free software that makes the internet as we know it possible. What would the web be without Apache? Without the GNU license? Without Linux, php, mysql, and WordPress? I shudder to think of the proprietary commercial garbage we would have to endure, and at the limitations to freedom it would inevitably oppose. The landscape of the internet would be much different if companies like Microsoft, Apple, IBM, SCO, among other rampant litigators were in control of the majority of web servers, not Apache. It would be like watching TV, only you could click on stuff…however no matter what you clicked, someone would try to sell you something.

I remember when the U.S.A. was more or less a free country, back before September 2001, when there wasn’t public surveillance in every major city, when citizens were not wiretapped without a damn good reason, and when we didn’t torture people, or detain them without charges and access to legal counsel.

An internet without Open-Source software would be like The United States after September 2001, a barely tolerable hell of restrictions and suspicion, bickering and division, competition and skullduggery. I believe the internet is the last true frontier on Earth, and that we are seeing real liberty blossoming, free markets being created (e.g. craigslist.org), and actual expansion of consciousness and understanding among human beings, all because of the internet.

No mention of freedom on the internet would do, without mentioning the EFF, without whom, the internet would have been doomed back in the 90’s, as a cesspit of government surveillance and inevitable corruption and failure. The Electronic Freedom Foundation is our bastion of honest electronic liberty, in the true spirit of the U.S. Constitution, about which it seems, so many of us have forgotten. It is my stance that without them, the world would be a much less enlightened and informed place, and that the information age could have been the disinformation age.

Starting on August 1st, 2009, I will be putting my money where my mouth is and each month I will donate to one of the organizations I believe are important to our liberty and the web.  The amounts will be kept private,  if only because I don’t wish to embarrass myself, I’m not a heavy roller. Just a few bucks here and there, whether I can afford it or not. I will write a post for each donation, detailing why I think that particular organization is important, and how my readers can support them too. Keep it real, keep it free, keep it open.

~Out.