Four Key Reflections on Free and Open Source Software from Rob McQueen

Rob McQueen, CEO at the Endless OS Foundation (EOSF) and president of the GNOME Foundation, recently posed four key questions about free and open source software (FOSS), digital access, and the future of open source at this year’s GUADEC conference. GUADEC (the GNOME Users And Developers European Conference) is GNOME’s largest conference, bringing together hundreds of users, contributors, community members, and enthusiastic supporters for a week of talks and workshops.

Before we dive in, a reminder on what FOSS actually is: free and open source software is (you guessed it) free. The open source part means that the source code is shared openly, meaning anyone is able to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way. 

Now, onto Rob’s questions:

1) Why should we care about the desktop?

While it might seem that cellphones and tablets have limitless functions, the real key to global expansion of digital access is the desktop. Desktops provide a completely different and necessary platform for learning, productivity, and acquiring and applying skills.

Think about one of the most basic processes for finding work: applying for a job. The hiring website might require Word document attachments or typing in a form unsupported by a tablet. Additionally, if you're going to be writing papers, doing research, operating spreadsheets, coding, making digital art, etc., you’re going to need a real computer. Without widespread desktops, 50% of the world doesn’t have the opportunity to participate in the digital economy.

2) What does access mean across a global stage? 

Simply put, access is not equal. There’s a broad range of factors that might hinder access: affordability, allowances, time, work, and family are just a few. For example, the experience of parents who have devices and reliable access but lack the knowledge to help their kids complete online homework requires different solutions than rural families who rely on internet cafes. Simply addressing one of these challenges does not automatically guarantee accessibility on a global scale. Plus, just having access is not sufficient: technology can help users access information, jobs, skills, and money, but the computer itself is not enough to guarantee equal access or engagement in the digital economy, which is why it’s important to think about who shapes the new user computing experience.

3) Who shapes the access experience? 

If you only have access to one channel on TV, your view of the world would be shaped by how that channel presents information.

Rob reminded the audience that we can’t rely on the people and companies that provide the technology to keep their users’ best interests at heart. At Endless, we’re not just here to build a better desktop, we’re interested in who shapes the end user experience, what stakes they might hold, and why it matters. The way information comes into a user’s life affects and influences the decisions one might make. For example, if you live in a remote part of the desert and only get one channel on TV, your view of the world would be shaped by how that channel presents information and what they tell you about health, politics, national security, and more. The way that information comes in could impact major parts of your life, like how you vote and how you make decisions about your family’s health. Until now, we have allowed big corporations to shape those experiences. Part of increasing access globally is thinking about how to minimize the influences corporations can have on the user experience.

4) What would it take to diversify open source?

First, if we want to build software that is useful for people around the world, we need to be reflecting their opinions, perspectives and lived experiences in what we’re designing. That’s why Endless is on the ground, talking to users and community leaders in places that are disconnected. Second, technology has a diversity issue - and it’s even worse in open source. Without a long term theory of change that speaks to sustainability, diverse groups of people who enter FOSS will not stay. There are more early career FOSS contributors and computer scientists than there are FOSS jobs, and part of building a stronger ecosystem involves building skills that can apply to the larger computer science field  The other part is encouraging larger corporations to see the unique skills that FOSS contributors bring to the workforce. This shift in thinking is key in supporting not only the recruitment of diverse workers but also investing in retaining them.

Check out Rob’s talk at GUADEC 2021 (start time: 2:08:50) and let us know what you think about the future of FOSS.

GNOME is a free and open-source software environment project supported by a non-profit foundation. Together, the community of contributors and the Foundation create a computing platform and software ecosystem, composed entirely of free software, that is designed to be elegant, efficient, and easy to use.