Mutualist journal club
Monday, December 05, 2005
InformationWeek >IBM Jumps On Open Document Bandwagon
The Microsoft monopoly is under attack from multiple fronts.
InformationWeek > IBM, Open Document Format > IBM Jumps On Open Document Bandwagon > December 4, 2005
I've long been a fan of open document formats, believing that use of Microsoft's formats produces "vendor lock-in", thereby limiting competition. Kevin's "Studies in Mutualist Political Economy" discussed the role of monopoly in capitalist economics, and put things into perspective for me (and also made me think that I had been wasting my time advocating open document formats).
Basically, as I understood the argument, we should expect the capitalist powers-that-be (corporations and governments) to oppose any monopoly that affects an input to production, as "office productivity software" clearly does. Capitalists will also make a point of preventing any one of them from acquiring much more wealth than the others, hence Microsoft is a prime target for them.
InformationWeek > IBM, Open Document Format > IBM Jumps On Open Document Bandwagon > December 4, 2005
I've long been a fan of open document formats, believing that use of Microsoft's formats produces "vendor lock-in", thereby limiting competition. Kevin's "Studies in Mutualist Political Economy" discussed the role of monopoly in capitalist economics, and put things into perspective for me (and also made me think that I had been wasting my time advocating open document formats).
Basically, as I understood the argument, we should expect the capitalist powers-that-be (corporations and governments) to oppose any monopoly that affects an input to production, as "office productivity software" clearly does. Capitalists will also make a point of preventing any one of them from acquiring much more wealth than the others, hence Microsoft is a prime target for them.
posted by Anonymous # 7:28 AM 
Comments:
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I don't see backing open source as a mistake at all. OS can be used by the capitalists for their own ends, but it can also be used to create a counter-economy that undermines their power.
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