Be social in your own terms

Since this post is a digression in this blog, I think I need to explain myself to the regular readers. Last year, I wrote a software manual for an application called Gwibber. Although the guide was originally intended for a local community of users, the Ubuntu Vancouver LoCo, it was later decided that the manual be distributed worldwide. This post is a comment on my experience documenting Gwibber, and it is intended, for the most part, to the Ubuntu community around the world. If you want to know what Ubuntu is, click here. To check my teammate’s post, click here.

Writing about Gwibber was an interesting and exciting experience in two ways: on the one hand, it introduced me to a community of IT anarchists. A group of people who rebelled against the impositions of the IT oligopolies, and instead decided to create an operating system of their own. More importantly, this community of rogues also infringed the rationale of the market: their software is for anyone to use, reproduce, transform and improve. How cool is that!  “You can’t charge money for a bunch of mathematical equations” said Randall Ross in one of our meetings, his words leaving an indelible mark in my memory.

On the other hand, I got to play around with one of the coolest pieces of software I have used in many years. Its simplicity does no justice to the all the trouble it saves you from. And its purpose redefines the meaning of microblogging, social marketing, and social networking. I encourage Ubuntu users to try it, and I hope my prose matches the simplicity and usefulness of Gwibber.