Soliciting feedback on a boilerplate template for a POLITICS file for free software projects
cc: @Shamar
https://discourse.qoto.org/t/boilerplate-template-for-politics-md/87?u=jump_spider
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You should write a POLITICS.txt as you would write an architectural description of the application.
There's no prescription in it as there's no way to enforce it on the receivers.
It's just a set of statements that the authors accept to be judged upon, something they will use to measure the political achievements of the project.
Imagine a crypto library: it could be a technical success AND a political failure, and the politics.txt exists to make it easy for everyone to verify this condition.
@freemo @jump_spider
The POLITICS.TXT should be a short list of easy to verify #political goals of the #software itself.
It's not a general declaration of authors' ethical values or party's affiliation.
It should briefly describe how the software project is intended to chance the society, through clear and verifiable statements.
To be honest I'm not sure you can have a template for this.
For example this is the one of #Jehanne https://github.com/JehanneOS/jehanne/blob/master/POLITICS.md
The word #Politics has been chosen according to its actual meaning: Politics is the art of serving the "#Polis", the society at large (as it was conceived in ancient Greek cities).
Over centuries it has been turned into a game of Power and it's not by chance that today #money drive political movements: money sublimates power and allows its accumulation on large scale.
So today it's important to rediscover Politics as a practical activity with clear and measurable #social goals.