ourproject.org manifesto

Index

Introduction
The philosophy behind ourproject.org
What ourproject.org stands for
Basis
Licences
Who we are
Contributions
Conclusion

Introduction

The idea behind the ourproject.org initiative is for it to be a tool which encourages the cooperative work effort of all types of people from every part of the world, promoting the coming together of people and the exchange of ideas and solutions to problems, with the condition that the results of the projects will remain freely accessible to whoever may find them useful, within this tool.

The ourproject.org initiative will also be a place to find, or at least look for, solutions, ideas and other people with the same interests.

We are concerned with translating to other fields of society the philosophy which has been developing over these past years around the Free Software computing concept. Therefore, ourproject.org does not intend to create a new philosophy, but instead adopt an already existing and highly successful one.

The modes of communication chosen by those who participate or show interest in ourproject.org will primarily be via the Internet, but this does not discount the use of any other existing (or new) method of communication, the choice of media used lies with each individual depending on what may be the most suitable for the tasks at hand.

The creative work resulting from everyone's combined effort must be made available under a free distribution license (read licenses section for more information).

ourproject.org is also interested in supporting any other similar proposals that may already exist.

The philosophy behind ourproject.org

The development of computing tools made the world of computers and the Internet available to a huge number of people who took control of their facilities and began to benefit from their use in communication and the exchange of news, experiences and projects.

The computers used are assisted by a group of programs used to accomplish the tasks requested. These programs, known as Software, have been created by one or more people through the writing of source code, effectively, a language, which can be understood by both people and the computer.

However, some programs, called proprietary software, come in a closed package, which has to be purchased in order to be used, and which cannot be copied nor freely distributed. Not only is the unauthorized distribution of copies (piracy) forbidden by law in various countries, but often the same companies who design these programs request that their clients tell them when problems are found in the programs, so that they may come up with ways to improve the products. The companies also leave it quite clear that accepting suggestions for improvement from the client doesn´t mean that there will be payment or recognition.

Groups of people enthusiastic about the possibilities of computer science gradually started to realize their ideas, and together with others with similar interests and through the collaboration and free sharing of knowledge created, amongst other things, the Internet, personal computers and free software, working freely [1], and holding to the philosophy that the motivational factor in life is not work or money, but the passion and the desire for something to be, from a social point of view, beneficial [2].

With this philosophy a Free Software Community was created. All of the members of this community agreed to allow anybody to run, copy, distribute, study and modify their programs; in other words, everybody is allowed to improve the original software.

The ourproject.org initiative tries to translate this philosophy to other fields and subjects of life.

What ourproject.org means

In order to translate the Free Software initiative to other fields in life, ourproject.org tries to facilitate cooperative work between people with similar interests about any subject, by the use of the Internet as the main communication method, although no other media are to be excluded. The results from the combined efforts that are achieved must be available under free distribution license (read licenses section for more information).

Therefore, ourproject.org doesn´t focus exclusively in the software development, but can be defined as a multidirectional project, opened to any kind of people interested in any subject. These people will be given the needed technology to guarantee a proper group working.

The ourproject.org initiative, and any project within it, will arise and grow by the voluntary, unselfish and passionate work of those who collaborate in them.

Basis

The projects hosted in ourproject.org and the initiative itself will be in keeping with the laws for the protection of the environment, human rights and worker´s rights.
This project, ourproject.org is independent from public or private institutions of any kind. The aim is for the objectives described above to be achieved through the participation of interested parties.
The initiative ourproject.org is not in any way interested in commercial or advertising purposes, and should not be used with these purposes in mind.
The project ourproject.org has not been brought forth by an individual. ourproject.org our project, is a collaborative work effort, a tool for far-reaching use and social participation. This participation should be realized without privileges for any party, and by maintaining equal conditions.
ourproject.org aspires to be a multilingual initiative, and so it will be as long as voluntary translators exist; thus, the tool and any hosted project try to be reachable by the higher possible number of people, so that no exclusion will be made. For the same reason ourproject.org supports the Web Accessibility Initiative(WAI) in order to make ourproject.org accessible for disabled people.
Any project hosted by ourproject.org will be available under free distribution license (read licenses section for more information). Other projects raised from any of the hosted projects will have to keep the same license and to be available under free distribution license.
The initiative ourproject.org may help to the creation of new projects or to host already existing project which complains our basis.
It is suggested to make sure there is no similar existing project to join with before creating a new one, so that cooperative work will be promoted.
Since ourproject.org is interested in supporting any similar existing initiative, if you know about any of these, please contact us at ourproject@ourproject.org. In case other initiatives like ourproject.org exist, it would be reasonable to join forces, because both of us would have the same objectives.
This manifesto also tries to make a call to the Free Software Community for enlarge the number of their beneficiaries and the scope of their excellent work.

Licences

Any project hosted by ourproject.org should use one of our approved licenses which permit the free (as in freedom) use, copy, distribution and modification of the knowledge generated in the projects. Contact us if you want to suggest another type of licence that you think we have to include in our site.

Who we are

Initially, the ourproject.org initiative was created by a group of friends with similar interests, although it is now open to any interested people.

This is the alphabetical list of people which have collaborated or are collaborating with ourproject.org

Contributions

The main part of the making of the ourproject.org tool will rely on the software developers, who will have to be supported by the rest of people in other important aspects such as linguistic, organisational, legal, artistic and so on. This way, the basis of this work will be created following the philosophy which is expressed in this paper: a cooperative work between people.

Any people can collaborate; there is not such mistaken person as the one who don´t do anything just because he thinks that he cannot do anything.

If you are interested in joining us, translating any web page to any language or doing any other kind of contribution, please contact us at ourproject@ourproject.org. Anyway, if you don´t know how to help, please contact us and we will try to make some suggests that you may like.

For more information consult our contributions section.

Conclusion

We hope that with the help of the ourproject.org initiative, or any similar project, social progress could be advanced, by helping the cooperation between people.

[1] Pekka Himanen, The Hacker Ethic
[2] Idem.

This manifesto is inspired partially by the works of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the descentralized work in solitary or in groups of many other people.

If you have any comments or doubts please write to ourproject@ourproject.org. If you have any comments about this web page or if you find an error please write to webmasters@ourproject.org.

Partial or total copy and distribution of this article is permitted, provided this notice is preserved.

Version 0.1 of this manifesto by Vicente J. Ruiz Jurado, 6th June, 2002.
Version 0.2 by Vicente J. Ruiz Jurado with contributions of Alberto Aldave, Jose Pablo Ferrándiz and Lola, 20th June, 2002.
Version 0.3 rewritten by Lola with contributions of Alfredo Sánchez, Denis Illionet, Isaac Albéniz, Jose Pablo Ferrándiz, José Ruiz, Mahib Subh, Rubén Gallardo and Vicente J. Ruiz Jurado, 1st July 2002.
Version 0.4 by David Arroyo, Vicente J. Ruiz Jurado and Vladimir di Fiore, August 2003.
Version 0.4.1 improvements in this English translation by Boxley Hume, July 2006.
Last revision: July 2006.