We are both technical people. We have worked in telecommunications and computers all our life. The Internet is a miracle that has changed the world, but it has so much more potential, and we see far too many people who are technical like us spending their days working on a new app or the pursuit of more ad clicks.
So much of the world of business focused on gaining private advantages through arbitrage and monopoly as the world becomes ever more unequal. We hope more of our colleagues will take the time to do public work and to be inspired by the ideas of Gandhi to help make our world a better place, a world focused on public good not just on private gain.
Democratizing information may seem an airy goal to some, one not worthy of pursuit by serious people in these times of trouble. A skeptical editor might well ask how we can focus on computers and networks when people are starving and our planet is destroyed?
We have two answers to that. First, computers and networks are what we do. In our world, we all do what we can. But our real answer is that access to knowledge is a building block, democratizing information is a means to an end, a foundation on which all can build.
If we put this foundation in place, we believe we can reinvent our world, as so many before us in centuries past have reinvented their worlds. We can change the deep flaws in our financial system which focuses on ever-increasing concentration of resources in the hands of a few instead of a common good. We can revolutionize how we provide health care, transportation, food, and shelter. We can revolutionize how we educate our children and ourselves. We can revolutionize how our governments work. We can begin caring for our planet. Democratizing information can change the world. Decolonizing knowledge can change the world. Let us we take that journey together.
Carl Malamud and Sam Pitroda
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