Real Information Society and Social Implications of 'GNU/LINUX'

Hong, Seong Tae (sociologist)

1. Information Society and Real Information Society

The term of information society is widely recognised that it is a society of post-industrial and post-capitalist. But this kind of usage is manifestly contaminated by 'technological determinism'. The usage does not correctly reflect social conflicts around the mode of development and use of technology. For this reason, I would like to the term of 'real information society'. By this term, I would like to recognise the effects of the information technology on society, and I would like to argue that information society is in the 'reality' of industrial and capitalist society.

2. Real Information Society and GNU/LINUX

In terms of real information society, informatisation is currently developed on the basis of two opposing modes. Firstly, the path of capitalist privatization. This means the capitalist mode of development and use of the information technology. This is represented by Bill Gates' Microsoft. Secondly, the path of post-capitalist information-sharing. This is based on the recognition of information as publc goods. This is represented by 'GNU/LINUX'. Real information society is oscillated by the opposition between these two paths.

3. The Types of Information-Sharing Movement

If the dominant model of information society were 'capitalist information society', the opposite model would be 'post-capitalist information society'. The information-sharing movement means a social movement developed especially in the area of software, with post-capitalist perspective. There are three types of the movement. Firstly, the free-software movement. It has two principles of sharing and participation. Copy-left is it's safeguard. Secondly, the open-source movement. This is derived from the free-software movement. It criticises the free-software movement as fundamentalism and presents itself as pragmatism. Thirdly, traditional hacker movement rejects any restriction on the development and use of software.

4. The Perspective of Information-Sharing Movement

Information-sharing movement is a technological alternative movement. But it is a social alternative movement as manifested in the process of its development and use. It pursues othert values than moeny, and pursues the institutions to embody these values. Therefore 'GNU/LINUX' is not a new operating system to cheaply use, but a technological platform to transform the capitalist information society to post-capitalist one. The fundamental task is that we should develop 'GNU/LINUX' to an alternative technological system, and to an alternative socio-technological system. This task will be accomplished by participation of many volunteers. In relation to this, the association of information-sharing movement and social movement of information is especially important. The association will play a key role to disseminate the social implications of 'GNU/LINUX' to other social movements, and common users.