What happens if we are not inclusive and collaborative? Instead of releasing our true talents, we’ll be wasting time solving problems arising from not collaborating – such as, creating barriers and fighting barriers in accessibility, affordability and availability of solutions essential to us. And why should that be a problem? Because then, these barriers become barriers to our individual and collective agency and well being in the society.

We need to reconstruct our societies such that collaboration and inclusion becomes the foundation. Individuals, families, communities, organisations, local governing bodies need to reconstruct themselves to become more inclusive and collaborative. 

How can we create an inclusive and collaborative foundation for our society?

“Free software is a matter of freedom. Free software is a social movement. Open source is a development methodology.” – Richard Stallman, Founder – Free Software Foundation.

With the example of open source software projects around the world, we’ll take a quick look at in what ways open-source projects have been inclusive and collaborative and in what ways, and in what ways they have not been. We’ll also dig into what needs to be collectively worked on to build totally inclusive and collaborative open-source software development.

We’ll conclude by giving a brief note on how we can extend such a level of inclusion and collaboration in all other aspects of societal development with a peek into our efforts on this at the Free Living Experiments Organisation.

• Type of talk: Intro