(From Brussels): (No links in this one -- the hotel charges $1 for each 6 minutes of connectivity, so I don't want to take the time to find them. But at least there is no queue to use the business center's single computer.)

Yesterday, Ray and I spoke at the CNE/PFF lunch for people associated with the European Parliament and other opinion leaders. The topic was interoperability, open standards, and open source software.

One illuminating incident occurred when I mentioned the more grandiose ideas of the U.S. Free Culture Movement -- its concept that FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) is a pilot program for other creative products, and that eventually all creativity should be distributed over the Internet for free, paid for by a government fund generated by taxes on hardware and connectivity.

The Europeans had not heard any of this, and at first they assumed that I was telling a joke. When they realized I wasn't, they were disbelieving -- how could anyone take such an idea seriously? (My sentiments exactly, of course.)

It was very interesting, because it means that the context of the discussion about FOSS is quite different on the two continents.