Software has no borders

Tom Watson MP tweeted to congratulate us on the Rewired State event last Saturday: “want to see British talent? Look at the list of projects created at Rewired State. Simply extraordinary. Thanks all.”

I felt a bit uncomfortable about the ‘British talent’ remark, and at first I wasn’t sure why it affected me so. On one level, it’s just not true – one of the winning entries was headed by a kiwi friend, but while his particular nose was put out-of-joint, that didn’t quite explain fully my unease with and surprise at the remark.

Now, I realise that I’m reading too much into an off-hand tweet, and I don’t think for a minute that Tom was trying to appropriate our efforts, or spin them in any way. In fact, that he took the time to thank us is much appreciated. But, that said, my discomfort is real and bears examining.

The more I think about it, there’s just a cognitive gap in my mind between what we were doing and any kind of nationalism or jingoism – even though in this case all the projects were around and about UK government.

I think the reason Tom’s remark seemed so out-of-place may have something to do with the social and no-border nature of open-source software.

The project I worked on used bits of technology that directly come from Denmark, the USA, Germany, Japan, Australia. Being largely open sourced it would have had contributors from just about every country I could find on a map; and likely some I couldn’t.

What’s more, software like everything else it seems has become social. I’ve met many of the people that built it, if not in person then on irc or on mailing lists (or, if you insist, on twitter). I have a different relationship with open-sourced tools than I do, for example, with the Japanese TV I own. The software is whoever built it, from wherever they come. British talent? I just don’t care.

If we had completed something useful on the day, we would have shared that code with whoever wanted it, of whatever nationality. I just don’t recognise national borders in this work. It wouldn’t have been British code, just code. And, the environment into which it would have been released is a pan-national one.

I remember, when I was CTO of a tech start-up, there were people whose code and libraries we used, that we would have liked to have employed, but who were on visas that either prevented it or that required them to earn a certain amount annually, or were only around for another couple of months on a time-limited visa. It always seemed a bureaucratic nonsense to me.

I don’t want to seem all Star Trek about this – what next, abolish money? – but I think I’m privileged to work in a no-borders industry. I like this world where software doesn’t get exported and imported. Software gets written and then used. And, tackling comments like Tom’s when they pop up is an important part of maintaining this good.

What if Tom had said ‘want to see open-source flourishing in Britain?’ Ooh. That would have been good.

(Wish I hadn’t mentioned export tariffs for software. Who knows what crackpot ideas this government will come up with next.)

Tags: opensource, rewiredstate, technology, Tom Watson