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Letter from the President
Ibagsak ang Digital Imperialism
Ni Dr. Francisco Nemenzo

I-Filipino natin ito para di maintindihan ni Bill Gates.

Ayon sa Kule, maraming ayaw lumipat sa Linux kahit ipaliwanag nating pinapabayad tayo ng P8,000 bawat computer para sa subscription sa Windows. Bakit daw pahirapan sila? Sanay na sila sa Windows programs at sayang ang kanilang mahalagang oras kung mag-aaral pa ng bagong programa. May katamaran din talagang matuto ng bago. Bukod dito, katwiran nila na tungkulin daw ng sabwatang US-Arroyo na isubsidize ang edukasyon.

Kung gusto talaga ng isang departamento na gumamit ng Microsoft Office, hindi namin sila pinipilit. Pero sila ang bahalang mag-install ng Windows OS sa kanilang computer. Di nila mapapakinabangan ang network dahil unti-unti na itong ililipat sa Linux. At kung mahuli sila ng mga tauhan ni Bill Gates, huwag silang humingi ng pambayad sa multa.

Ang isyu ay hindi lang economic (pagtitipid), kundi political din (paglaya sa digital imperialism). Linux is the antidote to monopolistic control. It is truly liberative and empowering. Liberative because it is so designed that it cannot be locked in by a giant company that wants to carve out a captive market. Empowering because, being open source, it allows users to modify and improve on any program.

Of course, the economic issue is important. Libre kasi ito. Walang hahabol sa atin dahil sa paglabag ng Intellectual Property Rights ng WTO. Years ago, when I was writing a column for the Philippine Daily Globe and, later, for the Manila Times, I defended software piracy as “the revenge of the Third World.” Now that is not necessary because Linux has opened up an alternative for proprietary software.

Nangatuwiran si Bill Gates noon na kailangang bayaran ang software dahil wala nang magsisikap na pahusayin pa ito kung aalisin ang profit motive. Linux is the answer to this capitalist argument. Marami nang magagaling at napakagandang software ang nasulat para sa Linux, at ang mga ito ay libre din. This has created a market that Bill Gates cannot corner.

Dahil open source ang Linux at lahat ng mga programang nakasalalay dito, madali natin at malaya tayong i-reconfigure ito. Pwede nating iayon ito sa ating partikular na pangangailangan. At pwede pa nating dagdagan ng mga bagong feature. Ganito ang batayan sa kultura ng Linux community: Lahat ay magtulungan para paghusayin pa lalo ang mga programa.

Hindi ito maaring gawin sa mga programa ng Microsoft. Karamihan sa atin ay nasasanay lamang na gumamit sa kanilang mga default function. Oo nga, maari itong i-reconfigure pero limitado ang mga opsyon na inaalok.

Totoo na mas kumplikado ang Linux-based programs. Kung talagang matatalino ang mga taga UP, napakadaling matutunan ng Linux. Para sa amin na dumaan muna sa WordStar, naranasan namin ang proseso ng paglipat sa Microsoft Word. Mas mahirap ang adjustment na iyon. Pero ang StarOffice, OpenOffice, Linux Bayanihan, etc. ay tulad din ng Microsoft Office na menu-driven at user-friendly.

Linux Bayanihan is a package of Linux-based programs developed by ASTI (Advanced Science and Technology Institute) – a unit of DOST based in our Diliman campus, along C. P. Garcia Avenue. To promote Linux, it tries to overcome the valid criticism that Linux is difficult to install. With Bayanihan, it takes only three keystrokes to install Linux. And the package includes alternatives to MS Word, Powerpoint and Excel.

ASTI is giving UP several copies of Bayanihan, with permission to replicate it for as many computers as we want. “Permission” is an understatement: ASTI encourages us to propagate it. Ang layunin ay wasakin ang kontrol ng Microsoft at iba pang ganid na software companies.

Nagbabalak sana kami ni Dr. Jay Sabido (propesor ng UP at kasalukuyang director ng ASTI) na magsponsor ng “Linux versus Windows” debate. Pero nahihirapan kaming maghanap ng tagapagsalita para sa Windows. Nasaan na ang mga tumututol sa Linux? Hinahamon namin kayong ipagtanggol si Bill Gates!

Bandwidth and Pornography

Marami rin daw ang salungat sa aming Acceptable Use Policy. We are being charged with inconsistency. While claiming to promote computer- and Internet-literacy, the critics point out that we are restricting access to certain Internet websites. Is this an affront to freedom?

At certain times of the day – the times when most of us would like to use the Internet – we notice that entering the UP website and downloading materials is painfully slow. That is because our bandwidth is limited. Since I took over we have increased our bandwidth at considerable expense, yet it did not take long before the line got congested again. More so when we installed more computers with Internet access and started to give email accounts to all students who apply.

The critics presumably want us to keep on increasing our bandwidth. Never mind the expense. This is probably an extension of the hackneyed argument that government has the responsibility to provide free education because education is a right, not a privilege!
We believe the wiser option is to limit Internet usage to educational purposes. We do not mean to restrict the freedom to use the Internet for research and other education-related activities. Quite the contrary, we want to make access faster. We are merely restricting the privilege of peeping into pornographic websites, playing games and downloading movies. This is not out of prudery but of prudence.

I was told that more than half (as much as 70%) of our available bandwidth is consumed by peeping toms who love pornography. I look at this not as a moral issue but a political one: should we allow the peeping toms to make the lives more difficult for the serious scholars?

Under our Acceptable Use Policy, fine arts students who have a legitimate reason to admire nude beauties and music and film students who need MP3 materials can request for exemption. That will free a lot of bandwidth.