YaTTI
This document provides an overview of the open technology essays created for YaTTI (Yayasan Teknologi Terbuka Indonesia), exploring various dimensions of the open movement and their implications for innovation, society, and global development.
The collection consists of six comprehensive essays, each addressing a different aspect of open technology:
Each essay follows a consistent structure: - Approximately 1000 words - Academic yet accessible style - Introduction, body sections, and conclusion - Concrete examples and current statistics - Balanced analysis of benefits and challenges
Key Themes: - Evolution from Garrett Hardin’s “tragedy of the commons” to Elinor Ostrom’s empirical counter-evidence - Ostrom’s eight design principles for successful commons management - Non-rivalrous nature of knowledge and information - Creative Commons as practical implementation of digital commons principles - Over 2.5 billion works under CC licenses across 9 million websites
Core Insight: The non-rivalrous nature of information makes digital commons even more valuable than physical ones—sharing multiplies rather than diminishes resources.
Key Themes: - $7.7 billion annual corporate investment in open source (86% labor, 14% direct funding) - Maintainer crisis: 58% have quit or considered quitting, 60% unpaid - 2024 license wars: Redis, HashiCorp shifts triggering community forks - “Fauxpen source” and corporate co-option - AI challenges to traditional licensing models
Core Insight: The current model where volunteers subsidize trillion-dollar corporations is unsustainable; new models must fairly compensate maintainers.
Key Themes: - Enlightenment roots in Jefferson, Paine, Franklin, and Adams - 120+ countries with freedom of information legislation - Digital transformation through e-governance and open data portals - Legitimate boundaries: security, privacy, commercial confidentiality - Modern paradoxes: surveillance states demanding transparency while claiming secrecy
Core Insight: Democratic legitimacy requires government accountability, but absolute transparency is neither achievable nor desirable in all circumstances.
Key Themes: - Six pillars: open peer review, methodology, access, data, source, educational resources - Plan S and institutional mandates transforming publishing - Article Processing Charges creating new inequities - Private sector R&D and hybrid models - COVID-19 acceleration of open science practices
Core Insight: Open science can accelerate discovery and democratize knowledge, but requires nuanced policies that preserve incentives while maximizing public benefit.
Key Themes: - Patent concentration: top holders command trillion+ dollars revenue - Patent thickets in smartphones, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology - Patentleft and reciprocal sharing obligations - BIOS example in agricultural biotechnology - Legal complexities and economic incentive challenges
Core Insight: Open patents offer a path toward collaborative innovation ecosystems, but implementation requires careful balancing of incentives and enforcement mechanisms.
Key Themes: - John Wilbanks’ paradox: increased connectivity with increased lockdown - Government initiatives: data.gov, EU Open Data Directive - Data commodification and surveillance capitalism - Aggregation loophole: public data becoming proprietary - Indigenous data sovereignty and CARE principles
Core Insight: The democratic imperative for data access requires sophisticated approaches recognizing data’s multiple natures—as economic asset, public good, personal attribute, and cultural patrimony.
Each domain evolved from idealistic origins toward complex modern implementations: - Commons: Medieval pastures → Digital knowledge sharing - Open Source: GNU Project → Corporate-dominated ecosystem - Governance: Enlightenment ideals → Digital age complexities - Science: 17th-century norms → Digital infrastructure - Patents: Individual protection → Corporate arsenals - Data: Public records → Surveillance capitalism
All essays explore fundamental tensions: - Community benefit vs. commercial exploitation - Transparency vs. legitimate secrecy - Innovation incentives vs. public access - Individual rights vs. collective good - Global equity vs. economic sustainability
Recurring pattern of corporate entities co-opting open movements: - Open source maintainers subsidizing tech giants - Public data privatized through aggregation - Patent pools dominated by large players - Commercial confidentiality in government operations - APC models excluding Global South researchers
Digital technology both enables and threatens openness: - Easier sharing but also easier hoarding - Global access but also global surveillance - Transparency tools but also information overload - Collaboration platforms but also platform monopolies - AI opportunities but also new legal challenges
All essays call for innovative approaches: - Sustainable funding for open source maintainers - Hybrid models balancing openness and incentives - Diamond open access in publishing - Time-limited exclusivity in patents - Data trusts and commons governance - Meaningful transparency beyond data dumps
These essays directly support YaTTI’s mission as the Indonesian Open Technology Foundation by:
The essays can serve as: - Educational resources for stakeholders - Policy briefing materials - Foundation for strategic planning - Advocacy tools for promoting open technology - Reference materials for grant applications
This collection of essays provides a comprehensive examination of open technology across multiple domains, revealing both common patterns and domain-specific challenges. While each area faces unique obstacles, the shared vision of democratized access to knowledge, tools, and opportunities remains compelling. The path forward requires sustained effort to build institutions, norms, and laws supporting truly open systems that serve humanity rather than concentrate power. These essays offer both theoretical grounding and practical insights for organizations like YaTTI working to realize this vision.
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YaTTI exists to tear down Indonesia's digital barriers through open technology. We build practical tools that solve real problems—from AI-powered legal search to knowledge preservation systems. When technology is open, transparent, and accessible, it becomes a force for equality rather than division.
Open standards are the digital world's common language—enabling your phone to call any other, browsers to read any website, and Indonesian developers to compete globally. True openness means anyone can implement without permission or payment. Standards affecting billions shouldn't be controlled by dozens.
Open source powers your world—from Android phones to the servers running the internet. It's software with a superpower: anyone can use, study, modify, and share it. When tools are free and open, a teenager in Bandung can access the same technology as Silicon Valley giants.
Open science breaks down paywalls that lock away humanity's knowledge. When research is freely accessible—from papers to data to methods—discoveries accelerate and solutions spread faster. COVID vaccines developed in record time prove what's possible when scientists share openly.
Open data transforms information from locked vaults into public resources that drive innovation, accountability, and better decisions. From GPS enabling trillion-dollar industries to citizens tracking government spending, open data distributes power. When data is truly open, everyone can build.
Open patents use the patent system against itself—ensuring innovations remain free for everyone to use and improve. Instead of blocking progress with legal landmines, open patents create expanding commons of technology. When life-saving medicines and clean energy solutions are openly licensed, humanity wins.
Open governance replaces closed-door decisions with transparent, participatory processes where those affected have a voice. From Indonesian villages practicing musyawarah to cities using digital platforms for budgeting, open governance builds trust and better outcomes. When power is shared, democracy deepens.
Commons are resources that belong to everyone—from village forests to Wikipedia. Creative Commons makes sharing simple with free licenses that let creators say "some rights reserved" instead of "all rights reserved." With 2.5 billion works shared, the commons prove abundance beats scarcity.
YaTTI
