How Open is the Future?: Economic, Social & Cultural Scenarios inspired by Free & Open-Source Software (Crosstalks) - Softcover

In this book a wide range of free-thinking programmers, scientists, artists, designers, engineers, activists, researchersand scholars express their views about various ways of creating and sharing knowledge in an age characterised by thephenomenal rise of the Internet and the growing tendency to protect all intellectual property.There are two reasons why the free and open-source software issue has become such an inspirational and powerful force today: the rise of the Internet and the growing tendency to protect all intellectual property. Internet technology made it possible to handle massive decentralized projects and irreversibly changed our personal communication and information research. Intellectual property, on the other hand, is a legal instrument which - due to recent excesses - became the symbol of exactly the opposite of what it had been developed for: the protection of the creative process. As a result, free-thinking programmers, scientists, artists, designers, engineers and scholars are daily trying to come up with new ways of creating and sharing knowledge.In 2003 Vrije Universiteit Brussel launched its university and industry network called CROSSTALKS, aimed at developing a new interdisciplinary exchange dynamic for key players in society. This first CROSSTALKS book provides an open, constructive platform for a wide range of researchers, lawyers, artists, journalists and activists invited to air their complementary ? and sometimes contradictory ? views and discuss future prospects for the driving forces of our time.

Marleen Wynants is the operational director of CROSSTALKS and a contributor to JANUS Magazine. She has produced content and articles for the major media groups in Belgium, and has also written books for children and published a large number of essays on the impact of ICT technology on society. She gives educational workshops on creativity and technology. In recent years, she has focused her activities on communicating information about interdisciplinary scientific projects and the people behind them. Jan Cornelis