Open source, journalism and freedom
Attached is a copy of the presentation that I gave to the New York Press Association back in September. The summary is “Using open-source software is a moral imperative for news organizations, because doing so help spread freedom of speech and encourages the open exchange of ideas.”
A slide showing the number of registered Drupal users from notable countries identified as repressive of free speech by Reporters Without Borders.
The presentation is a PDF. I generally use images and then talk, so this is a little short on words and may be hard to follow. Some notes:
– I gave this three days after DruopalCON Barcelona, so the first slide is about what we did in Barcelona.
– That is a picture of Correfoc, part of Barcelona’s annual festival La Merce.
– I removed a picture of a specific person because I have not asked his permission.
The talk was well-received, and I appreciate the NYPA allowing me to give it.
Get a copy of the presentation. [PDF file, 19.1 MB].
5 Comments so far
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Great. I recommend posting to SlideShare as well. See http://www.slideshare.net/group/drupal
By Boris Mann on 02.06.08 1:41 pm
I am surprised that Afghanistan would have more than 4 times those of Egypt, given the population, and the state of technology.
Egypt has about 80 Million, whereas Afghanistan has 31 Million.
Unless the ones in Afghanistan are overrepresented by expats visiting or working there or something … but still …
By Khalid -- 2bits.com on 02.06.08 9:02 pm
The numbers are based on self-reported country on the Drupal user profile page. They were compiled in September, and could have changed.
For example, see http://drupal.org/profile/country/Egypt. There are 20 per page, and 35 pages. So roughly 700 registered users now.
Afghanistan, for whatever reason, shows 220 pages or over 4000 users. http://drupal.org/profile/country/Afghanistan?page=219
By Ken Rickard on 02.06.08 11:05 pm
I know why …
Afghanistan is at the top of the list of countries in the personal information tab, and hence if people do not change it, it defaults to Afghanistan.
Makes sense now that they are overrepresented.
By Khalid -- 2bits.com on 02.07.08 11:08 pm
Well, that sounds like a d.o. usability bug to me. Funny, though.
By Ken Rickard on 02.07.08 11:54 pm
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