" Basically he felt that if it was on the Internet, it must be free for
the taking."

This can be one of the things we need to teach the little angels now
(see post The world has changed - What do we teach the little angels
now?). There is and always has been an expectation on the internet that
services are exchanged. Programmers share code, down-loaders upload,
users trouble shoot and market. The expectation to participate was
seldom explicit (some bulletin boards had upload/download ratios);
however as anyone who only posts questions to a newsgroup soon finds
out, the responses to their posts will rapidly decline. There isn't an
accounting system: you share what you know, do what you can. The
expectation evolved from people working together to solve common
problems. Participants contributed to a body of knowledge.

With the exponential expansion of the web, a significant portion of the
participants aren't aware of the values and expectations that supported
the pre-web internet. However, many have adopted the values even though
they aren't explicitly aware of them. Also, the ways to contribute have
expanded. But, there are some who take what is freely available without
any thought or intention of participating in the community. As Philip
points out, if the overriding value shifts from giving to taking, the web
will wither and die.

For the web to continue as a central meeting place to share knowledge,
technology, and our stories, our young need to understand: how it works,
what it does, and what they can do to maintain it.

EDTECH Editor-Eiffert wrote:

> From: Philip Hess <pjh@zoominternet.net>
>
> Hello,
>
> Several months ago I mentioned this in passing to a tech-savvy
> superintendent. His response was telling of his attitude towards open
> source software. Basically he felt that if it was on the Internet,
> it must be free for the taking. The danger is that while school
> districts see the need to buy software from vendors like Microsoft
> that they have a hard time making a donation to an individual or
> company that makes/markets open source software. While open source
> software may be a bargain compared to the offerings of larger
> companies, without compensation (motivation) open source software
> will wither and cease to be a viable option.

- posted by Larry @ 7:28 p.m.