Re[2]: [ga] Working Group Decision-Making Software

["William X. Walsh" <william@userfriendly.com>]

Hello Joop,

Saturday, April 21, 2001, 2:44:40 PM, Joop Teernstra wrote:

> On 10:20 21/04/01 -0700, Roeland Meyer said:

>>2) Closed source. 'nuff said.
>>

> Here I disagree with you, Roeland.  
> Don't get me wrong. I like the idea of open -source development very  much. 

> We have had these discussions  before and my conclusion is that for
> political decisionmaking software a proprietary product is much preferable
> over an open source product.  
> We have savvy participant here, with their own interests at stake.
> If the inner workings of the software are open to participants, it becomes
> too great a temptation for some to hack or manipulate it.

> Aside from this, open source would just deflect our attention from the
> substance of what we discuss/decide to the code and it possible weaknesses.

Open source means that the source can be reviewed and the public can
be assured, or assure themselves, of the way it works.

Closed source means you are trusting that a third party has not modify
it.  There is no inherent trust involved.

Security through obscurity is a fallacy.

-- 
Best regards,
 William                            mailto:william@userfriendly.com


--
This message was passed to you via the ga-full@dnso.org list.
Send mail to majordomo@dnso.org to unsubscribe
("unsubscribe ga-full" in the body of the message).
Archives at http://www.dnso.org/archives.html