Open source
You once claimed that there is a connection between open source, for example Linux, and our democracy. Where is the connection? Why is open source important for our democracy and why
“For the Open Source Yearbook 2009-2010 we asked Maurice Schellekens to think about the question whether sweden telegram data open standards should not be constitutionally guaranteed. Maurice was initially not enthusiastic about this, because according to him technological solutions did not belong in the constitution. In his analysis he then considered the role of IT in the modern government and the consequences IT has for the relationship between government and citizen. His position is that the government can intervene in the lives of citizens by using IT and has acquired a scope that would be impossible without IT.
Much IT consists of black boxes, so it is completely unclear to citizens and even users within the government what is going on. The output does have direct consequences for individual citizens. Administrators see IT as a tool, a value-neutral tool, but that is not true. Just think of the development of semantic standards: there are value definitions behind them. Schellekens ultimately stated that for democratic control of the government it is necessary that there is open IT, including open standards and open source software and that this must be guaranteed within the constitution.