[FC-discuss] Words, phrases, and the coining thereof

[Gavin Baker]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I find "free culture" as a phrase/concept both useful and problematic.

It's good because it's all-encompassing: I can include access to
knowledge, freedom of information/open government, free
expression/exchange, free computing, open telecom policy/connectivity,
and even community media/cultural participation under the rubric of
"free culture". It's also a catchy phrase and sounds positive.

The weakness is in the lack of definition. If I had to give an elevator
explanation of "free culture", I'm not sure what I would say.

But it's clear that there's a value in having an umbrella term like
"free culture". I can't think of another with the same meaning, other
than "information policy", which is descriptive but value-neutral. In my
experience, "information policy" gets even more blank stares than "free
culture".

Nelson Pavlosky wrote:
| * Free Culture
| * Access to Knowledge
| * Freedom of Information
| * Freedom of Expression
|
| Knowledge/information/culture.  Freedom/liberty.  Is there a term we
| could use that would encompass all of these concepts at once?  I believe
| that Students for Free Culture would tend to support all of the above
| concepts, but each of those four phrases has different connotations and
| none of them truly include all of the others.
|
| "Free Culture" may come the closest simply because we are part of the
| free culture movement and we are vaguely supportive of all of the above,
| but "free culture" does have connotations of caring about e.g. copyright
| and remix culture, and does not have e.g. the "open government"
| connotations of "freedom of information".  I frequently try to import
| all of the above phrases into "free culture" but I get the feeling that
| people don't really get what I'm talking about, since I am trying to
| shovel a truly insane amount of issues into a single overloaded term and
| few people are familiar with all of the issues I am trying to cram under
| that banner.  It may be better to use a neologism or bring forth an
| obscure little-known term rather than overloading "Free Culture".
|
| Thoughts?
|
| Peace,
| ~Nelson Pavlosky~
| Co-founder, Students for Free Culture
| _______________________________________________
| Discuss mailing list
| Discuss at freeculture.org
| http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss

- --
Gavin Baker
http://www.gavinbaker.com/
gavin at gavinbaker.com

the moonflower
even as it trembles
no longer a bud
~    L.A. Davidson
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFHx6notLXQdLhFpekRAqxnAJwIwchqrCInRPuGsrVVGvaHhpD9cgCdFJW/
VvPjHDowgfVnMs7gPQ+IezI=
=Gim2
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----