[governance] Re: [bestbits] need for regulation ....

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

Speaking as a security practitioner over the past 15 odd years, Linux has its fair share of malware.  And software that commonly runs on linux has its fair share of security holes which need to be patched.

The amount of malware on windows is much higher - but that is also due to its massive install base on desktops.

More eyes make less bugs is a bit of a broad generalization I must say. 

--srs (iPad)

> On 17-Mar-2014, at 20:59, Guru गुरु <Guru at ITforChange.net> wrote:
> 
>> On 03/17/2014 08:20 PM, Adam Peake wrote:
>>> On Mar 17, 2014, at 11:05 PM, Guru गुरु wrote:
>>> 
>>> David,
>>> 
>>>> On 03/17/2014 11:16 AM, David Cake wrote:
>>>>> On 10 Mar 2014, at 6:26 pm, Guru गुरु <Guru at ITforChange.net> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>> 
>>>>> Not clear, how in Multistakeholderism, where the private sector has an equal footing in public policy making, we will get Google to agree that its search algorithm, as the key factor organising the worlds information/knowledge for all of us, needs to be public knowledge, not a commercial secret. The need for it to be public knowledge stems from privacy/surveillance concerns, because such fundamental knowledge ought to be available as 'cultural commons' that others can take/re-use/revise, fostering competition etc.
>>>>  Indeed. It is particularly unclear because many in civil society, or government for that matter, might oppose it becoming public knowledge. Such a course of action would almost certainly lead to many Google searches returning results ranked according to the most industrious search engine optimisation service customers, rather than having at least a reasonable chance of being ranked in a useful way.
>>> Adam also mentioned the issue of searches being gamed and I did give a response ...
>> 
>> Hi Guru,
>> 
>> Apologies, I took your reply as agreeing with the points I made, so I didn't bother to reply further.  You agreed to a high probability of gaming occurring... and suggested research.  I took this as you agreeing that you had been too enthusiastic when stating that Google's search algorithm needs to be public knowledge.
> 
> Hardly Adam, for any public policy, there will be innumerable issues/challenges.  the challenge of gaming is obvious and I have no doubt it needs to be and can be  addressed.
> 
> By the same logic, free and open source software should have the maximum viruses since it the source code is freely available. Paradoxically, while Windows is plagued with viruses, GNU/Linux is not. One of the reasons given is that, the open source allows many people to study and identify issues and help resolve it... whereas this is not possible with proprietary software.
> 
> Do you accept that Google keeping its search algorithm has dangerous public interest implications - we really dont know what is hidden in the code used by millions of users and how it may have malignant code that can serve its commercial (and post Snowden we know how many US IT companies are hand in glove with the USG) political interest of its  masters.? If yes,  then you need to think of a public interest based response to this ...  the ball is in your court as well..
> 
> Guru
> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> Adam
> 
> 
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