There were those who complained about the labor conditions of those who picked grapes and sewed t-shirts.\u00a0 About pesticides on apples and growth hormones in milk.\u00a0 About generically modified corn and soy.\u00a0 About how governments conduct foreign policy, how they treat prisoners of war,\u00a0 how they collect intelligence, how they make treaties and how they make war.<\/p>\n
How dare mere consumers, the unwashed masses, the hoi poloi<\/em> have an opinion on such matters?\u00a0 Let those who know best determine what is in the public good.<\/p>\n I see open source and open standards activists in a similar way.\u00a0 Many consumers care not only in the direct good they receive from technology, but also in how that good was generated, whether from exploitative sweat labor, whether from environmentally invasive\u00a0 methods, and yes, whether by perpetuating software monopolies or damaging the ecosystem of open source and open standards.<\/p>\n What we’re seeing is a generation arising that is no longer content to worship at the alter of technology and follow the dictates of the high priests.\u00a0 They are not content to be fed whatever the industry gives them.\u00a0 They care not only about what something is<\/strong> and how it is used<\/strong>, but also what is its impact<\/strong> on their bodies, the environment, on culture and society.<\/p>\n To those who are unprepared this may appear confusing, irrational and even scary.\u00a0 Why aren’t the consumers content to accept our recommendations?\u00a0 Why are they complaining so much?\u00a0 For some kinds of business, those who do not adapt, this is a threat.\u00a0 And to others, this is an opportunity.\u00a0 Some will win and some will lose.\u00a0 Which will you be?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There were those who complained about the labor conditions of those who picked grapes and sewed t-shirts.\u00a0 About pesticides on apples and growth hormones in milk.\u00a0 About generically modified corn and soy.\u00a0 About how governments conduct foreign policy, how they treat prisoners of war,\u00a0 how they collect intelligence, how they make treaties and how they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-open-source","7":"category-standards","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1537"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2339,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537\/revisions\/2339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}