Well, no one and everyone. This is a project to write a program that will run the country. That program will allow YOU to affect every decision that the next President ever makes. Every policy decision, every action of the president will be made by the software and the software will make decisions based on the input of the public.
Remember how everyone was surprised by the fact that the President was not select by popular vote? Well, we can't fix that (right now) but, once elected the Open Source president will use the popular vote as part of it's method of making decisions.
In the end, you are running for President.
Ever heard the story of stone soup?
Open Source started as a way of allowing programmers to collaborate on software in a way that everyone benefits. The Linux operating system is probably the most popular program that was developed using this method.
The advantage of open source development is that the development effort gets the benefit of all of the developers working on the project. In a sense, each developer is able to replicate themselves. So, 10 programmers working on software get the benefit of 10 developers for the effort of one.
But, it gets better. There are others who contribute to the effort who are not programmers. To write software, we need graphic designers, writers, and project leaders, to name a few. Since none of us can be all of those things, effectively, the open source model allows everyone to work at what they do best to develop software.
But wait, there's more. Once the software has been created, anyone who wants to can use the software. So, for the effort of a very few, the whole world benefits.
Quite simply, an Open Source President is a President created from the work of a lot of people.
Recently a few canidates have been referred to as Open Source Presidents. But, these guys are fakes. True, they are relying on many small contributions, instead of several large donations. They are using Open Source techniques to run the campaign. They are even using or creating Open Source software. But, assuming any of these guys get elected, who do you think will be making the decisions? What role will all of the people who got him into office have in the Presidency? Sure, a few at the top will get cabinet positions or other major government jobs. But, you think everyone who donated a dollar to the cause is going to have a voice.
NOT!
A true Open Source President will not only be created by the public. A true Open Source President will BE the public.
Why not? We all know the line "government for the people, of the people and by the people" is just a bit over stated. What if the government really was by and for the people?
Enter late and dominate. Now that the major players have been choosen, we know what the spec should look like. All we have to do is create a President as good as Kerry and/or Bush and the White House is ours. Kerry just talks about "taking the White House back." What he really means is "putting John Kerry in the White House." The Open Source President really will give the White House back to the people.
DMB Hosting is a provider of ASP.NET web hosting services. They have kindly granted us space on their domain in the spirit of Open Source.
