[Fsf-friends] RE: [Fm-core] The social enterprise

[hongfeng]

> Perhaps budding Entrepreneurs might want to read this article at C|Net.
> Here's a link: http://news.com.com/2010-1071_3-999961.html

I've read it, it is a nice one.

I think any enterpreneur should put the socal benefit superior than
anything else. In China, the company law require this explicitly.

Unfortunately, this is a vague sometimes to describe what a social benefit
means
(for a specific companies), and the current social system stupidly measures
it just by the tax one pays, which misleads the masses that
if a company is profitable, then it pays more tax to the society, then
its contribution to the society is large.  I think that's why so many
companies (like the tabaccos) are just seeking for money, and forgot
their responsibilities to the society, obviously the proprietary software
publishers are the typical case of this kind.

Someone may argue with me: how can I get paid if I do free software business
(by putting the social benefit superior than anything else)?
My experience has shown if a hacker can pass the thresholds of the
technology, then he owns a rights or a qualification to offer nice service
or software.  TeX is free software, my typesetting business based on TeX
is creating funds for me now.  However, having understood how TeX works
internally has taken my 7 years (read the Prof Knuth's TeX books Vol 1 took
me
2 years,  the Vol B 3 years, and metafont/metapost 2 years).  For many
software
companies, they might be dead in the time overcoming the technology
threshold(s).
As this is not related with the capital.  Talent can not be accumulated over
a night.
And hackers who passed the threshold are always in shortage in the
market. (many other restrictions lead this effect.)

So, back to the topic, I don't think raise money is hard, but the premise
is the hacker should truly understand how the technology works to
meet the social demands --- this is really tough.  Most people I met
in China always ask me the same question, but for a true hacker,
this is not a problem at all.

Another issue is: not every hacker is a good business man, many hackers
are smart on technical issues, but they are truly awkward for business,
that's why their talent are always abused by the bad businessmen who
do not care the social benefits at all.

That's why in my hackerdom training program, I always first remind the
students
the importance of the freedom, the moral goal of technology, the
responsibility
a hacker should undertake. I usually explain them by the case of nuclear
technology
--- it can be used for generating energy for our life (good), and can be
used by
the war madman to build the bombshell to kill people(evil).