Re: FSF, terminology, and marketing

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Paul:

> Claus, thanks for the email, and your quotes from Miguel are helpful.
>
> I think you bring up a good point as we are mostly, with the exception 
> of Stormy and Rosanna, a volunteer staff.

True.  Perhaps, the GNOME community can recommend terminology for
volunteers and/or help explain the reasoning behind the word choices so
we make sure that volunteers are educated and can decide for themselves.
However, it may be inappropriate to try and dictate which term any
volunteer should use.

A more thorny issue is what language should be used by the Foundation
board of directors and those employees of the Foundation.  Those
people represent the GNOME community and we really need help from the
community to ensure that we use the language that the community would
prefer that we use.  Since many of the documents that board members
and employees contribute to are marketing-related, it is also useful
to get the perspective of the marketing team.

While many of the responses have been rather ambivalent and leaning
against the term "GNU/Linux", I think we also need to consider whether
there are any contexts where using the FSF recommended terminology is
appropriate.  For example, if we do a press release about something
directly related to the FSF, then perhaps it does make sense to make
more of an effort to use the terminology they recommend.

Or do we feel so strongly against using their terminology that we think
that is a bad idea to use "GNU/Linux" in any context?

> Brian - do we have a list of terminology the FSF would prefer us to use 
> other than "free software" and "GNU/Linux"?

That is a really good question.  As we all know, terms like "free
software" and "open software" are confusing since words like "free"
and "open" have many meanings.  The FSF does feel that language is very
important and that it is important to be careful to use the best words.

Here is an essay that Richard Stallman wrote to provide guidance on
this topic:

  http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html

I would think it would make good sense for anybody involved with free
software, and especially those on the marketing team, to be (at the
very least) aware and familiar with this information.  If the GNOME
community uses terminology that the FSF finds disagreeable, we should
probably not do so out of ignorance.

> Taking a step back and thinking about this, if we were creating a style 
> guide for our volunteers, what would some of that terminology be?  I 
> don't think this email thread needs to turn into style guide 
> requirements, but it might be helpful to understand what the FSF is 
> asking for.

I am not sure that we need a style guide, but it would perhaps be useful
to know if the GNOME community endorses these sorts of FSF
recommendations, and to what degree.  Then, at least, we know what we
agree and disagree about.

Brian