I've been reading George Lakoff, and doing a lot of thinking about values, lately. My own values as well as those of others. I know what it is about open source software that appeals to my values. You can look at the list in my sig and get an idea of the values I'm talking about, and you can imagine how OSS fits into them, but I don't want to bias the discussion too much beforehand with my opinions. I will offer those up later.
What I would like to know from some of you guys is, which of your values are best served by OSS? Please let me know either directly in confidence, or publicly to the list, where you consider yourself on the conservative/moderate/progressive political spectrum, and what it is about OSS that appeals to you. I'm especially anxious to hear from my LUG friends on the right of the spectrum, as that is more difficult for me to understand. Once I've heard several opinions, I plan to formulate some kind of summary explanation, or theory, that connects different values and the open source movement.
Thanks for your input, Jim Herrmann