I am surprised nobody even acknowledged your post, and this may be an indication that not many have made this connection. So I applaud your initiative that has not received much attention since everyone is too scared to append classical political theory (are you listening Marxist?), let alone challenge it in its inability to interpret material realities of today.

Yes, the idea of contributing “work”, produce, openly and freely, for anyone to consume, alter, reprodruce, without a direct “exchange” is probably the only area of the market that this is happening. Maybe public domain documents, art, theory, A/V material licensed as CC or Gpl are also important. Imagine we could do this with basic core survival necessities and construct autonomous communities with such an economy (or really lack of an economic system). But it may be happening with products that are not really material, and can be shared through a medium of low or no-cost. It would be hard to do this grains, building materials, fruit, vegetables, eggs (vegan god forbid :).

But, but, but, there are problems within this “commune” of open AND free sw.

1. The small problem is the elitism pushed by the ultra-libre foss crowd which lacks the self criticism that in order for people to locate the proper hardware so they can run ALL libre-sw they have to pay high prices, which some can’t afford. Getting pseudo-refurbished used industrial equipment (DELL/HP workstations/pcs mostly) in sub 100 ($/Euro) values is what the vast majority of the world can afford and use. Nearly all hw in x86-64 platform though, even those that provide libre firmware/drivers etc, are not all open/free source. Most only work through binary blobs that are neither open or free. We can speculate but we may never know what is “iinside”… and just the specs of what they can do are scary enough.

2. The apolitical, non-critical, perspective among FOSS developers is that if “corporations” provide FOSS, or just open source, we can use that is good and we should rush to use it if it is functional and helps our experience and work. But especially large corporations have used this FOSS channel to manipulate, steer, and control the FOSS development, towards a direction that benefits them (and maybe the state agencies under which those mega-corps are protected, can profit, and exist). It is always an exchange system that rules those relationships. So companies like IBM/RH, Qt, Oracle, HP, google, facebook, …etc. can provide foss code and push development towards something that is compatible with their tools, so independent developers can and will incorporate their platforms and move their direction.

It is like creating an autonomous community and allowing representatives of a corporation to work the fields but also participate in assemblies on how to run the community.

With linux foundation having the largest industrial names as seats of the board, and be paying 7digit salaries to the top signers of the kernel, within a year or two alone the kernel has grown more than 2X in size, full of industrial firmware and code, that most common mortals will never even see from a distance. So who are they contributing code to/for? Yes, 7digits in $/Eu yearly salary + “benefits”, paid trips, paid talks, workshops, … and the occassional consulting contract to sweeten the defaults of the next gen kernel.

So, enjoy your stay in this hippie pacifist commune called FOSS, but don’t expect too much critical political thinking. Most devs are really dreaming of those 6-7digit salaries in the industry doing non-foss work while you are thinking commune. This is why their big fat name is placed on every little bit that is published. BUY ME BUY ME I AM FOR SALE!!! :)

3. We are at war, remember, nobody is innocent till proven not-guilty.