Invited by the indefatigable impresario of ideas Race Mathews to talk to the Fabian Society I’ll be doing so this Wednesday evening. The topic is the economic and social significance of open source software as a new mode of production, and I’m still working on the slides.
Please come if you’re interested, and it would be great to see any Troppodillians there. After the show we’ll retire to Toto’s pizza bar, so you’re invited if you want to come.
You have to pay the Fabians a small charge for entry to the talk – see over the fold. You can read this article I wrote on Open Source for Policy Magazine if you want to do a bit of pre-reading, though the talk will not assume any prior knowledge of what ‘open source’ software is. Please feel free to let me know you’re coming in comments or by email. And please let anyone else know who you think might be interested.
“New Models of Social Production: Open Source and its economic and social significance.”
Meeting details are 6 for 6:30pm to 8pm, Wednesday, 13 September, in Meeting Room 1, Trades Hall (Victoria Street Entrance), Cnr Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton. Australian Fabian Society members $6, non-members $8, concession $3.
Sadly I wont be able to come. Will you be posting a transcript here afterwards?
Dammit, what is it with this Wednesday for interesting events? I’ve already got a ticket for David Suzuki’s talk at the Athenaeum, and there’s a public forum on Victoria’s Clean Energy Future round the corner at Melbourne Town Hall.
Echoing cam, a transcript or a recording (or at least the slides) would be nice.
[…] Nicholas Gruen will be talking on social production and open source in Melbourne on Wednesday. It’s for the Fabian society (impressed that Race Mathews has kept this going). […]
A previous thread on your article was quite interesting too:
http://www.clubtroppo.com.au/2005/04/15/open-source-software-and-its-enemies/
Oh, and nitpick: “its significance”, not “it’s significance”.
Fair nitpick. I do actually know that. But you’ll find lots of mistakes like that in my stuff sadly – though more in stuff I dash off fast. Now you’ve pointed it out I can’t fix it and get away with it :(
I find badly placed inverted commas pretty amusing, as I think you can see, but not out of any sense of superiority!
The nitpicking is a professional habit these days – one of my jobs is working in a classifieds department.