No, Do Advocate by Advocating
I was trying to think why Dougie’s blog post this morning unsettled me slightly. It’s about not advocating, although the post doesn’t actually make any arguments about advocation itself, only consideration of all user needs.
But a rule I live by when advocating is that it’s not my choice to tell someone they will use Ubuntu because it does everything they need and nor is it my choice to tell a user that they can not use Ubuntu because it can’t do something they probably need. It’s worth while to advocate, educate and present the full value exchange to the user so that at the end of the day they can decide if they want to trade in iphone compatibility for a faster system that is more at peace.
I know I would be upset if I was passed over from being taught about important choices because the advocate was so considerate as to literally take the decision away.
And to answer another blogger today: I advocate because this idea of software freedom we have is nothing short of an industrial revolution in the production and provisioning of software, the software industry is new but it’s being fundamentally changed by the legal, economic and social challenges that have come about by having a fixed original work designed to be copied for free infinitum.
Of course it’s also nice to give people computers that work, but what’s the point if they don’t understand how transformative the process was that made it possible and instil a political will that stops harmful legislation from crippling the free culture movement.
Your thoughts?
There are two ways to advocate – actively or passively.
Active advocacy – telling people “your life would be better with Free Software”, feels better because it feels like you’re doing something – but can often be counterproductive. People don’t like being told they’re doing things wrong, and tend to go into an irrational “self defense” mode, where they won’t hear a word against the way they do things.
Personally, I’m a much bigger fan of passive advocacy – being better in their general direction, and leading THEM to ask YOU about Free Software. Consider exchanges with family members such as “which anti-virus do you recommend?” “Oh… I don’t really know, you don’t get viruses for my computer, so I don’t need to worry”. Or “Internet Explorer just crashed on me, how can I make it not do that?” “I don’t think you can, but you could try a different web browser to see if you like it”. Or “I can’t afford Microsoft Office, but someone sent me a file! Can you download it for me?” “No, that would be illegal. There are other alternatives you might like though, I can help with those”
And so on. Make them *want* FOSS, by demonstrating how awesome it is (read: when they’re at a moment of weakness), trying to push it on people only makes them immediately highlight shortcomings in it – and are turned off by it.
I think the best thing someone could to is just to make others aware of ubuntu . That way is their choice to use it or not … and if they decide to use it or try it then you can step in and help and teach.
I gave an old PC with Ubuntu to a friend for his children. The friend is an immigrant with a poor grasp of computers and even phones, but his children do well in school and university.
Next day, he thanked me and started advocating why Linux (“the modern system”) was such a good choice, explaining that there are fewer viruses and problems with it, and that it made the old system nice to use.