On September 1st, 2002, after eleven years of using various versions of Windows, I booted up my first Linux distribution and never looked back. My reasoning for such a radical decision was simple. After years of my computer controlling me, I decided it was time to control my computer. I was tired of spyware and adware, bungled Windows updates and hotfixes, and the insult to injury was that if I really wanted to pop the hood to fix anything, I needed to shell out $$ for a registry editor or virus protection! My decision to enter the Linux world was very personal, but after taking the first step I rapidly became immersed in the open source software “movement“. At it’s core, open source (and it’s more radical “free software movement” sibling) seeks to free the code and sell the services. Free code means that anyone can study and tinker with it, as long as they release improvements to the community. It also usually means free of charge. Selling services means charging for support, extra features, customization, and so forth. The concept was shockingly radical five years ago, but companies like Red Hat, JBoss, and even Sun Microsystems are proving it to be a viable business model today.

As I dug deeper and deeper into the open source community, I began to understand the larger cultural issues related to open source. Software was just the tip of the iceberg. Open standards could drive innovation not only technologically, but in art, science, politics, etc., in ways that we had previously never considered. That’s around the time I heard Lawrence Lessig speak for the first time. The Stanford professor’s one-hour talk about the twisted state of the American copyright system and how it has mortgaged more than two generations of our culture was extremely compelling.

New technologies continue to break the paradigm of those who seek to control and monetize our culture. This message is HUGE and should resonate with EVERYONE, not just the geeks. Recently, Lessig has abandoned his pleas for free culture and has focused on the more critical BLOCKER to free culture: our legislative culture of corruption. Or perhaps “corruption” is not the correct word. Lessig refers to it as a system based on money and influence rather than issues and substance. Read the rest of this story over at Lessig.org.

As a sidenote, I’d like to hear some of the presidential candidates talk about how they would address some of these SYSTEMIC issues that stymie our legislative system. And I mean real plans, not the canned, political answers that everyone gives now about “cleaning up Washington”. Edwards, Obama, and McCain have talked *around* the issue of special interests and lobbyists, but no one has addressed it head-on.