Barcelona Declaration for the advance of free software *

1. Historical context

The Internet is free software

Most of the infrastructure of the Internet is based on free software and open protocols. At present, more than 60% of web servers use Apache, a large number of mail servers use Sendmail to manage e-mail transmissions and practically all the name servers (DNS), essential in the working of the Web, use the BIND programme or derivatives of its source code. The importance that free software has had in the extension and development of the Internet since its beginnings is indisputable, and the mutual influence of both these technological spheres is a proven fact. Consequently, the success of free software goes way beyond the availability of a huge amount of programmes with free licences (among these, the GNU/Linux operating system, the Mozilla browser and the OpenOffice office computing package are notable examples).

History

Although the origins of free software date back to the 1960s, with the first developments of software, the movement as such was not formalised until the 1980s, when the following events, among others, took place:

• The creation of the GNU is Not Unix (GNU) project, led by Richard Stallman.
• The establishment of the Free Software Foundation (FSF).
• The publication of the first version of the GNU Public License (GPL).
• The development of BSD UNIX by the University of California at Berkeley.
• The free dissemination and exchange of software over the Internet.

Subsequently, the expansion of this movement occurred in the decade of the 1990s. Two factors were key for this. The first one was the arrival of the first completely free operating systems, such as 386BSD - which would later evolve into NetBSD and FreeBSD (with the decisive contribution of the University of California in Berkeley) - and GNU/Linux, where the work of a Finnish student, Linus Torvalds, enabled a free kernel for the operating system created by Stallman and the FSF. The other was the popularisation of access to the Internet, which both multiplied the communication and internationalisation of the communities responsible for the development of free software and made its distribution easier. In the current decade, the process of consolidation of the movement has begun, as illustrated by the fact that several million people use free software applications worldwide. Free software is also now officially used in a number of companies (from SMEs to large multinationals) and public institutions, and the number of free software users and developers continues to grow. We should also highlight the valuable contributions of large companies in the computer industry, such as Netscape, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Novell and Red Hat. We hope that this consolidation process goes on in the coming years, but we should not lose sight of the fact that there is a set of challenges and new opportunities that free software will have to face successfully if it wishes to continue to grow.

The decisive contribution of academia

Academia has played a very significant role in the development of the Internet and of free software. Some of the basic technologies in the free software field, such as the BSD-based operating systems, the X-Window graphical system and many others, have been developed and improved in universities. Richard Stallman himself comes from an academic background, and the recognised father of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds, developed the first version of it when he was still a university student.

2. Challenges and new opportunities for free software

The current decade must be defined by the extension and consolidation of free software. To achieve this aim, we must face a number of challenges and one or two threats, which we would like to mention in this document. This series of challenges and opportunities has been classed in seven different areas: academic, technical, strategic, legal, social, voluntary and institutional.

• Academic area
  
  Free software possesses certain characteristics that make it a focus of interest for universities. From the point of view of research, free software transfers the basic principles of the scientific model of the production of knowledge (free dissemination, review by experts, constant search for improvements, reproducibility of the results) to the field of software development, which has also become an essential tool for research in every field. From the educational point of view, free software affords many benefits (independence from the manufacturer, ease of sharing knowledge, flexibility, etc.), which have already been identified by a large number of universities. Therefore, it would seem reasonable that free software should acquire ever greater importance for universities and that the main barriers to its use in research and teaching should be removed.
  
  Going even further than this, the model of knowledge sharing fostered by free software could be extended to other areas, such as the production of teaching materials, which could represent a complete revolution in the organisation of teaching. This trend could lead to a new teaching model, so giving rise to a true open environment for education.
  
  Many of the reasons why free software adapts extremely well to the needs of higher education are also applicable to primary and secondary education. Consequently, the use of free software in these stages should be promoted and fostered by the institutions that have responsibility in these areas, following the example of a number of successful cases, such as that of LinEx in Extremadura.
  
  
• Technical area
  
  From the technical point of view, the free software community must work on technologies that allow the simplification of the development of free programmes and the improvement of the integration between different systems (such as Mono or DotGNU). The evolution of desktop technologies must also continue to facilitate the use of present systems (KDE, GNOME, Mozilla, OpenOffice). We must also work to consolidate standards (like OASIS) in the field of free software in order to ensure the interoperability of all free applications.
  
  The integration of software in all types of electronic devices, beyond desktop PCs (e.g. mobile devices, DVD readers, music players, etc.), opens up a new channel of expansion in which free software must be introduced as the leading technology, so affording independence from the provider.
  
  One opportunity for the advance of free software, from the technical point of view, would be to develop a free application that became the standard in its field. For example, the field of security and privacy is an area where it is possible to create an application that could become the standard.
  
  
• Strategic area
  
  The release of the source code of programmes, as occurs with free software, is a decisive stimulus to competitiveness and allows improvement, through cooperation, of the quality of the applications from the user's point of view.
  
  Free software must work firmly to combat the FUD techniques (fear, uncertainty and doubt) that are used against it. To achieve this, information has to be the best tool. In-depth studies must also be conducted into the total cost of ownership (TCO), and cases of the successful implementation of free software need be documented.
  
  
• Social area
  
  In the social area, we must work to make the use of free software widespread and not just for specialists and expert users. Work must be done to present free software as an alternative in the world of business.
  
  The information society must base itself on the free dissemination of information, but this process requires a mastery of the underlying technology if one wishes to take an active part in it. Free software is a necessary tool to avoid a division between the countries that lead this process and those that simply participate in it as mere consumers of proprietary technologies.
  
  The methodologies used in free software can also be used as a formula for tackling certain social problems. The open model of the processes of test and improvement of solutions can be applied to areas such as health. This concept, known as social web, is currently being developed at the Berkeley Center for the Information Society.
  
  
• Legal area
  
  Initiatives to extend the area of what is patentable to software constitute a serious threat to the software industry in general and to free software in particular. This problem now has even greater relevance in Europe, where software patents are still under debate, and discussions are taking place into the enactment of a directive in this respect.
  
  Another aspect to take into consideration is the validity of the different licences as a tool for protecting free software, especially when they are applied in different jurisdictions. Finally, it would be advisable to take measures to guarantee the intellectual property of free software so that situations of legal insecurity can be avoided, such as those that have arisen due to the legal actions brought by SCO.
  
  
• Voluntary area
  
  We must continue to seek ways of maintaining and promoting voluntary collaboration in and contributions to free software. The spirit of collaboration of voluntary work must be preserved (as in the case of the Debian project), as must the key role it plays in the commitment of companies and institutions. Voluntary work plays a fundamental role in guaranteeing the quality of developments and it also permits the spirit and the philosophy of the movement to be retained.
  
  
• Institutional area
  
  The stimulus for the use and development of free, open-coded platforms in public administrations guarantees greater interoperability of information systems, the possibility of auditing source codes of programmes with the aim of preserving the security and privacy of data, the independence of distributors so stimulating competitiveness and the reduction of costs in software licences.
  
  Free software also contributes to the development of a software industry in the region, replacing the transfer of royalties abroad in the form of licence payments with service contracts based on the new business model provided by free software. This fact provides an incentive to the establishment of new businesses and the creation of qualified jobs, taking advantage of available local knowledge.
  
  For this and other reasons, a number of governments on every continent have been developing public policies to this effect. However, we must be inspired by the logic of the main reason for the success of the free software community and stimulate cooperation between the various administrations with a view to reducing development costs and sharing experiences.
  
  To this effect, we propose the creation of a network of international cooperation between public administrations which establishes institutional relations with organisations in the tertiary sector (including NGOs), communities of free software developers, universities, agencies of the United Nations and the private sector with the aim of achieving these objectives.

Barcelona, 18 May 2004

Copyright (c) 2004 Manuel Castells, Vinton Cerf, Marcelo D'Elia Branco, Juantomás García, Jesús M. González Barahona, Pekka Himanen, Miguel de Icaza, Rafael Macau, Jordi Mas, David Megías, Òscar del Pozo, Pam Samuelson. Permission is guaranteed for the copying and distribution of this document in full in any medium, providing it is done so literally and this note is maintained.