RE: [ga] Working Group Decision-Making Software

[Joop Teernstra <terastra@terabytz.co.nz>]

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.


--Joop--
Founder of the Cyberspace Association.
Former bootstrap of the IDNO (www.idno.org)
Developer of    The Polling Booth
www.democracy.org.nz/vote1/


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