Status of the Open Source Party

[Jon Lebkowsky]

I just posted this at Slack, repeating here:

We never quite came back after the holidays. The cofounders have been discussing how this is a longer haul, that it’s unlikely we could have meaningful impact on the 2016 election starting this late, and that we should focus on building a movement first, before we build a party.

With that said, I suggested these points:

• We think open source is an important meme to bring into politics.
  
• We still believe that an open source party can make sense, but we think we're early.
  
• We should consider building a movement first, with two goals: get open source thinking into politics, and get more 'geeks' politically active.
  
• We say this acknowledging that there is insufficient time, energy, and money to build a meaningful presence in the 2016 elections.
  
• The founders of the OSP agree to keep meeting, keep discussing it, and hope to build a meaningful and effective future for the organization.
  
• At present, we're accepting that activity will be limited, and we encourage you to support the existing party and candidates of your choice and look for ways to get open source thinking on radar.
  

​Please let us know your thoughts about meaningful next steps. To become an actual political party, we would have to raise money, hire staff, etc.  We can make a movement without doing that immediately, though.

~ Jon L.​

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Jon Lebkowsky (@jonl)

CEO, Polycot Associates

President, EFF-Austin

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[RU Sirius]

thanks jon. i meant to respond yesterday but the usual busy…ness …

I think this is a good idea…

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[Devin Balkind]

In New York City a number of our local political representatives (namely - Ben Kallos and Gale Brewer) are extremely aggressive open source, open data, open government activists who are creating real change in the city and building a movement. 

In New Hampshire they passed an open source software law.

There is 18F within the GSA advancing open source within the Federal government.

There are a bunch of networks and civic groups advancing open source throughout government.

If I had one recommendation for the "open source party" it would be to use a wiki, directory and/or blog to document the advancement of open source in US politics and government.  That way it's community will be able to recognize when/where/how it can engage in strategic interventions that advance the movement.

Thanks for reading my 2 cents.