How to avoid open-splaining and find open allies quickly

Anytime I've met and talked with nearly anyone from these categories...

• NGO communication experts
• Educators
• Volunteer coordinators
• Digital strategists

...I have been amazed at the complete lack of understanding that open source software would save them and their target audiences money as well as allow more 'universal' and 'open' sharing of information.

Most, if not all, schools and 'educators' I have spoken with are firmly in the proprietary software camp.

Most, if not all, documentation I see from NGOs is written on proprietary platforms and sent and stored through and on non-open systems.

Most, if not all, digital strategists show a distinct disdain for using open source software as a first line option in the 'front' office.

Most, if not all, volunteer coordinators actively seek low or no cost proprietary software and use the 'charity' status to beg proprietary software companies for tax-lowering donations.

***

I'm not sure 'open' is meaningful anymore. The saying, "You get what you pay for." clearly is more accepted than the saying '?open is the future?'

The percentage of sheeple among us is staggering. I also try to talk with people about the benefits of Linux and OSS. I talk about security and how Windows 10 is sharing and selling more of their data than they realize and to whom they don't realize - marketing companies, governments, etc. I talk about freedom, cost savings, etc etc.

9 out of 10 just think I'm paranoid about security and couldn't care less about the other benefits as well.

It explains fully why I fear what the population will tolerate with more and more privacy invading technologies.

"9 out of 10 just think I'm paranoid about security and couldn't care less about the other benefits as well."

Agreed. I've stopped telling people about security unless asked.

"It explains fully why I fear what the population will tolerate with more and more privacy invading technologies."

I've been in supermarket lines hearing people on their cell phones talking about things that should definitely kept to themselves. It seems that people no longer care about privacy.

> I've been in supermarket lines hearing people on their cell phones talking about things that should definitely kept to themselves. It seems that people no longer care about privacy.

These people probably assume that, "random strangers who don't know who I am, are in no position to interfere, and have no interest in collecting, recording,collating and/or selling any snippets of other peoples' personal lives that they've come across, are even less of a threat to my privacy -- and autonomy -- than ISPs, web-sites, governments, banks, credit agencies and financial institutions, and other similar pervasive agencies."

Of course, Air Miles, "loyalty card" programs, and Facebook have already inculcated and thoroughly ingrained a powerful unconscious belief that all this data mining doesn't really hurt or threaten them, anyways.