Open source software benefits the entire society/humanity.
Therefor, it (or at least the most critical components, such as OpenSSL) should be funded by all governments in an internationally coordinated effort (tax payer benefits = tax payer pays).
If we can have internationally coordinated efforts such as NATO, why can't we have them for extremely important/basic elements of our society such as technology?
> If we can have internationally coordinated efforts such as NATO, why can't we have them for extremely important/basic elements of our society such as technology?
This is a very interesting question. The answer, most likely, is that the perception of security moves slower than the security concept[s] itself.
We come from an era where security was in most part physical, and we're transitioning to an era where it's much more logical; society though, is having a hard time adapting to the change.
For this reason, a technologist may see as obvious to take care or OpenSSL more than, say, building a tank, while a politician is stuck in with the latter only.
Also, I think we're only scratching the surface here. It's interesting, for example, to think of a parallel between the interests in keeping the world insecure. In practical terms, NSA has certainly a great interest in keeping security software broken even if used by the people it's supposed to protect; I wonder what was the parallel of this, 50 years ago, and especially, how is society going to react over the time.
Given today's murky geopolitical situation, its always good to cite history as correctly as possible:
"The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) .. also called the (North) Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949."
"The Warsaw Pact was in part a Soviet military reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO in 1955, per the Paris Pacts of 1954 but was primarily motivated by Soviet desires to maintain control over military forces in Central and Eastern Europe"
OK I stand corrected, NATO was set up first and then the Soviets set up the Warsaw Pact in reaction to NATO. But that still proves my point that NATO was one side, unlike (say) the UN which had/has both sides.
Open source software benefits the entire society/humanity.
Therefor, it (or at least the most critical components, such as OpenSSL) should be funded by all governments in an internationally coordinated effort (tax payer benefits = tax payer pays).
If we can have internationally coordinated efforts such as NATO, why can't we have them for extremely important/basic elements of our society such as technology?