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Is Open Source the Answer To Giving?

uctpjac writes "Mark Surman, Shuttleworth Foundation fellow, writes that open source is the answer to philanthropy's $55 trillion question: how to spend the money expected to flow into foundations over the next 25 years. While others have lashed out at 'Philanthro-Capitalism' — claiming that the charitable giving of Gates and others simply extends power in the market to power over society — Surman believes that open source shows the way to the harmonious yin-yang of business and not-for-profit. Sun, Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Yahoo, and Facebook are big backers of Creative Commons; Mozilla has spawned two for-profits. Open source shows that philanthropy and business can cohabit and mutually thrive. Indeed, philanthropy might learn from open source to find new ways to organize itself for spending that $55 trillion."

4 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Right.. by simcop2387 · · Score: 4, Funny

    We're still working on the food, but here's the formula for open source water, two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen.

  2. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Inner-city poor black kids with nothin' but net.

  3. Re:$1000?! by ichigo+2.0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    In other news, The Standish Group reports that a slashdot poster is causing them a loss of $1000 dollars in revenues.

  4. Wait a minute... by CSMatt · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sun, Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Yahoo, and Facebook are big backers of Creative Commons One of these things is not like the others.