Open Source Life : Where mind is without fear

Where The Mind is Without Fear , And The Head is Held High , Where The Knowledge is Free ...

I grew up reciting this verse written by India’s great poet Sri Rabindranath Tagore , who was also awarded the Nobel Prize on Literature in 1913. I was attracted to the rhythm and simplicity of language then, not realizing the depth of the messaging behind these words.

With time, As I got enlightened with the Open Source Concepts & Culture, the fundamentals of Community, Collaboration and Shared Ownership, Open Source started to mean lot more than technology. As I started to apply the fundamentals of Open Source to different aspects of life, where information is controlled or restricted to few instead of many, an idea evolved to practice Open Source as “A Way of Life”.

The above verse is a reflection of Tagore’s life – He has never been to a formal school or college , on the contrary he learned from various local teachers & practitioners everything from History, Literature, Mathematics, Anatomy, Geography, Drawing and also learned from nature like Swimming, Judo, Gymnastics. Tagore also established Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan (which means Place of Peace), where they follow non-conventional (more life impacting / practical oriented) methods & open air classes to learn, collaborate, share and practice life, which ideally reflects Tagor’s Vision for Human Life. Which is by large similar to Open Source Vision.

Such examples from life, inspires us to think, Is it actually possible to define a “Open Source Life” ?? If yes, How it will shape our future ????

It’s more common to relate Open Source to Software Development model. If we apply the same principles to Life in today’s context, then we arrive at a very interesting definition – “Life is just one big Open Source, Crowd Funded Micro-Services Project”. You can either choose to Live-It & make an impact OR just become another dead open-source project.

To Live and Make an Impact, we need to adopt Open Source Culture, which includes, Sharing of Information, Having Open / Informal Communications, Transparency, Directness and Collaboration. With Time, these will bring in a +ve influence in the life impacting areas of Society - like Education, Government, Medicine, Health care, Transport, Food, Entertainment etc.

If we all start practising the Open Source Culture in our lives, ideas will evolve, people will get connected and things will start changing. These ideas will change the society elevating the human life experiences. Some common areas of impact are --

For Education - Alternate learning & knowledge sharing models will emerge , ex – Home Schooling, Open Learning Frameworks

For Government - Transparent Processes, Public Scrutiny and Accountability will get established

For Medicine - Open Source Drug Discovery Methodology.

Let’s Free our Minds, Embrace Change, Join Hands and Work Together to build a Vision for Open Source Life which will lead to a better world for generations to come.