FYI[via LIG]: The Code: A Film of FLOSS and the FLO Community

Maybe some folks on this list might have a way to effectively
introduce this film, "The Code" (full synopsis BeLow), to
Xunhasaba and/or Fahasa for dubbing (thuye^'t minh), sub-
titling (phu. dde^`) and domestic distribution.

Perhaps even VTV or HTV contacts could propose and airing.

An excerpt from a synopsis of the film "The Code":

The Code presents the first decade of Linux from 1991 to
2001. Besides Torvalds, it includes many of his closest
allies in development process that is nowadays seen as the
greatest success story of the Internet culture. Eventually,
Linux becomes a viable business solution within the computer
industry.

[The media and public love such stories of resourceful,
idealistic individuals and communities winning victories
against forces with far more power, money and established
dominence.]

An excerpt from Tran Luu Chuong's presentation in Washington,
Oct.2002, on the Case for FLOSS in e-Government provides the
guidance for such a strategy:

One Possible OSS strategy - Overall goals:
ø Disseminate the OSS spirit and principle
ø Re-training and training
<...>

[A copy of the specific presentation page, and the rest of TL
Chuong's persentation, can be accessed via
http://h0lug.sourceforge.net/00.viet/fl0@vnisbiz/02flohow/tl-
chuong_infodev/html/img21.html]

Personally, i can't think of many media better than popular
film for disseminating "the spirit and principle" of an
alternative subculture to the general public, of any nation --
just relax and be eduTained...

Even most academics and organizational decision-makers,
including the people producing and funding "re-training and
training" programmes, are generally more open to unfamiliar
alternatives -- especially those apparently very different from
the status quo -- if they can first *conveniently* gain some
positive awareness and inter-personal familiarity with the
characters of the people in the communities proposing such
alternatives.

Regarding suitability to VietNam's current infoDev needs, it's
worth noting that this synopsis was posted to the Linux-India-
General online discussion list by one of the leading pundits
for Linux in India, Frederick Noronha, "FN", Founder of
http://www.bytesforall.org.

Apparently enough, FN feels such cinematic public-relations (or
"advocacy") efforts are still worth promoting even to the more
IT/IS-informed members of the Linux-India-General community,
even in the world's leading IT/IS outsourcing nation where
Linux and FLOSS systems receive regular attention in even the
nation's mainstream business publications.

(Though, of course, most Indian IT/IS professionals will not
need the film to be dubbed or sub-titled.)

=============================================================
From: FN <fred@bytesforall.org>
To: linux-india-general@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: [LIG] The Code... a movie about Free Software/ Open
Source and related issues
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 10:49:18 +0530 (IST)

=============================================================
Synopsis of "The Code", http://www.linuxthemovie.com/
=============================================================

In 1991, a 20-year old Linus Torvalds, a thin, bespectacled,
Swedish- speaking Finnish computer science student sends a
posting to an Internet newsgroup asking for advice on how to
make a better operating system. His project is a hobby, he
says, and would never become `big and professional'. But in ten
years he and his loose alliance of hackers all over the world
creates an operating system - Linux - that challenges Windows
2000 for the server market and is now poised to dominate the
next generation of handheld and desktop computers. What makes
Linux different, and deeply troubling for traditional software
companies, is that no one owns it. Every user is free to adapt
it in any way they wish, as long as they pass it on to others
on the same terms.

The Code presents the first decade of Linux from 1991 to 2001.
Besides Torvalds, it includes many of his closest allies in
development process, that is nowadays seen as the greatest
success story of the Internet culture. Eventually, Linux
becomes a viable business solution within the computer
industry. Media loves the story of `a single hacker against the
forces of darkness'. `Linux' becomes a catch phrase. Torvalds
turns into an international media star. No more a shy nerd, but
a relaxed, witty media performer par excellence. Linus is a
Jesus for a politician, respected and adored by both Linux
enthusiasts, the counter-culture - and the big businessmen. A
rare combination, this time or any other. But even after all
this attention Linus Torvalds remains, as a person, an enigma.
When interviewed in the media, he is always asked the same
questions and usually giving the same answers too. We think we
know him, but do we really? Why did he put his code into the
Net for free, initially? Many can still not understand it.
Maybe because `given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow',
giving a way to a better product? Or is there something more to
it?

The hero of the film is the archetype of our times: the
programmer. In The Code programming is seen partially as an art
form. Like artists, programmers will do it even if they do not
get any money. Through Torvalds and his cohort, following the
code development process, we get into the mind-set of a
programmer - and the communication between programmers.
Operating from his study in San Jose, California, Linus is the
benevolent dictator among hundreds of Linux developers around
the world. This room is the centre of their universe.
Everything goes through Linus, or his right hand man Alan Cox,
a Welshman. Developers compete in order to get their solutions
and improvements accepted by Linus. He openly admits that he
developed only 2 % or 3 % of the code in the beginning, and
that he built upon the work by earlier programmers, like
Richard Stallman. Developers are like monks in their virtual
monastery. Their change of e-mails through the years opens the
Linux saga in the film like a letter novel. Leadership in Linux
universe is about getting people to trust enough that they take
advice, making them to do things because of their own reasons,
not due to any external pressure. Linus is strict, loyal,
dictatorial, humble and positive, all at the same time. And
this is the key to the fulfilment of the collective dream.
Resembling cybernetics and communism, it would have never been
built without teamwork, collective responsibility - and
centralized planning.

Along the way, Microsoft recognizes competition, and throws
some mccarthyian dirt towards Linux, calling it un-American.
Regardless of this, Wall Street applauds, and for a brief time
Linux is the cream of the crop at the stock exchange market.
What is more important and revolutionary, the Linux phenomenon
makes a lot of ground in Asia and Africa, where an open source
code and a free operating system are something concrete, not
just fancy, elitist idealism. The process started in Europe and
the United States, but it is bound to be completed somewhere
else.

The Code is about the human urge to share and exchange, to
achieve something through collaboration, the profit motive not
being the dominating factor. Linux and the free software
movement have showed new ways to make profit in computer
industry, while raising heated debates on the ethics of
business and the old issue of freedom of speech. In the end,
The Code tells a key story of the digital age, a symbolic saga
about capitalism during the last fin de siècle of the second
millennium and the early steps of the third one.

Hannu Puttonen

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