FOSS Adversary.pdf
- 1. Describe two (2) nemesis of Free and Open-Source Software, and how it affects health care informatics Free and open source software (F/OSS) movements is being expanded beyond the traditional constituency of software hackers to encompass a larger group of non-expert users and other advocacy organizations. In so doing, the initial goals of free software advocates are being dramatically expanded to include broader aims of digital freedom and social justice. Utilizing the concept of social movements from political sociology, first outlines the key aims and discourses surrounding the free software movement by discussing the emergence and development of F/OSS efforts such as the GNU/Linux operating system and the GNU Public License (GPL). Second, It provide examples of how the free software discourses have been adopted, altered, and expanded by a number of organized groups over the past decade. These groups, such as the Creative Commons, digital privacy advocates, and global development agencies, have adopted some of the core concepts of free software, while greatly expanding their meaning and purpose to suit their own advocacy aims. Finally, It argue that the adoption of free software discourse among these newer groups is also having a recursive effect upon the free software movement by encouraging free software advocates to conceptualize F/OSS as part of a broader movement of digital rights and social justice. the prospects for the emergence of a larger technological and cultural freedom movement in the future are assessed. It affects healthcare informatics by solving many of the problems that health information systems currently face, including lack of interoperability and vendor lock-in, costs and difficulty of record and system maintenance given the rate of change and size of the information needs of the health domain, and lack of support for security, privacy, and consent. A number of Open Source/Free Software projects exist that seek to develop systems that will address some or all of these issues. It is suggested that in healthcare, as in many other areas, the development of Open Source Software/Free Software could provide much needed competition to the current relatively closed market of commercial, proprietary software and so encourage innovation but at the same time promoting interoperability, due to Open Source Software/Free Software conforming more to standards and the source code being open to inspection and adaptation. This, it is suggested, would lead to lower cost, higher quality systems that are more responsive to changing clinical needs.