What is "free" software?

"Free software" is software written by people who share it freely with others because they want to promote freedom, and because they hope people will share other software with them. It is called free software not because it doesn’t cost anything, but because it promotes freedom.

Free software means "the freedom to run the program, for any purpose ... [t]he freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs ... [t]he freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor ... [t]he freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits." (This definition is adapted from the Free Software Foundation's explanation.)

How is it used?

Free software is distributed in a human-readable form called "source code," the original form in which programmers write software. By studying the source code, other programmers can determine whether there are bugs in the software, or whether there are "back doors" which might permit governments (or the software's authors) to enter the compromised computer without the user's knowledge. In this way, free software is transparent and encourages vigorous peer review. The only barrier to participating in the review is the skill to be a programmer. Transparency and peer review are valued by scientists and by free software advocates.

A central idea in free software is that every user is encouraged to share the software with other users. By sharing, programmers build on each other's ideas and accomplishments, and this serves to advance knowledge, another central scientific value.

Sharing software also helps to decentralize control over the access to information technology. Since we practice so many of our human rights using electronic media, decentralizing control of that media is one way to help to keep virtual space open to everybody.

Free software uses open data standards. Because the internal working of the software is available for any programmer to tinker with, it becomes relatively much easier for other programmers to figure out how to read and write the files used by a particular program. Every user has had the problem that his or her word processing files couldn't be opened by someone else -- but such problems are much more rare in the free software world.

HRDAG works at the nexus of science and technology, in the service of the social values embodied in the international human rights norms. HRDAG believes it is important to use software that fosters the same human rights values promoted by our organization. We find that free software is one important way for us to practice what we believe.

Controlled vocabulary

Human rights data model

Multiple systems estimation

Source and judgment

"Free" software

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The Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) applies information technology solutions and statistical techniques to help human rights advocates build evidence-based arguments.