Sharism and the Freedom Stack
At the Sharism Forum, I laid out one view on Sharism and a way at looking at the layers and devices emanating out from oneself having a concept in the mind all the way to the creation of the virtual or physical expression of the original concept. In the modern world with proprietary and closed hardware, networks, software, and content/knowledge, one’s concept cannot be clearly expressed until those layers are freed. When those layers are freed with sharism, then one’s ideas and concepts can be fully expressed. Think of the proprietary layes as a network loosing packets of information. Unless 100% of the packets are received, there is still noise on the signal. I will continue to argue this year, and probably for the rest of my life, about the benefits of sharism along with all those proponents of Sharism including Isaac Mao, Christopher Adams, and hopefully you!
The problemetic in my mind is that sharing must happen first before one even uses a Creative Commons license or a Free Software license, which is repairing “failed sharing” now and the latter, requiring a large legal document just to enable a social movement we call the Free Software Movement. If one thinks about it, the entire freedom stack consists of legal tools, virtual tools required to solve a virtual problem, necessary in developed, or so called 1st worlds, to enable the natural human process of sharing. This sharing happens between all human beings in both first worlds, second and third worlds. It happens in America, China, Syria, Brazil, UK; It happens everywhere there are people!
This is why its so damn frustrating for some to see shanzhai culture (Shanzhai) in China, with many knockoff products and pirated copies of software, when essentially, the pirates have chosen that its better to share than to face some first world legal consequences. Its a cool choice to share, but its not always legal. To the young in the world, getting music for free, graffiti, skateboardind on public property, and soundsystem parties is cool! Hopefully, after one has chosen to share, or be part of a sharing community, they will take the legal route to use a Creative Commons license or a Free Software license for source code. Sharing is cool. Legal sharing is even cooler, safer, and compliant globally.
Thus, Sharism, as a concept and social practice is simply a philosophy for people who want to share. So, if you are a proponent of Sharism, then you believe that sharing has larger benefits to yourself and those around you. If you prefer to share moreso than its opposite — being selfish, holding and keeping your content, ideas, and source code — maybe you are not a proponent of sharism. Maybe you are a proponent of egotism.
However, it should be noted that sharism is not a form of extremism, rather it is an ideology to be used in a palette for the choosing. There are times with sharing is not possible. There are times when one must serve oneself.
Now, do we call these proponents of sharism, shariffs, sharists, sharerrorists, or just saints? These are things that will be worked out over time. For now, myself and the Fabricatorz will focus on holding Sharism Presents around the world when we are doing projects and have a great time getting to know people. Part of the Sharism project *is* Creative Commons, Free Software, Commons-based Peer Production, looking at Piracy, Wikipedia, resource sharing, environmentalism, and so many other forms of sharing.
If you believe that the more you share, the more you receive, help by talking about Sharism, sharing more, and holding your own Sharism Presents events around the world.
Its at 2:30 PM.
