Knowledge should be free

But why should knowledge be free? 

The 'open source' movement seems to be gaining ground everywhere. Many people in social enterprise prefer open source software to proprietary applications: for practical reasons (it is both better made and cheaper), and political considerations (it is co-operatively produced and commonly owned).

The political and the pragmatic advantages of open source are in fact intimately linked. What open sourcing does is say to the software users – all or any of them - here's the code, it's owned in common, if it goes wrong, or if it doesn't do something you want it to, let us know - or you fix it, we'll incorporate your 'patch' and give you credit for it. Everybody wins! It enlists tens of thousands of creative individuals – the 'community of developers' - in the production process.