Why did I start this? Because I wanted there to be a site absolutely dedicated to debunking FUD about FOSS, Linux, and anything related to that, including FUD about Open Standards. I am impressed with efforts like GrokLaw, and how they report on the “legal” attacks against FOSS, and how they debunk any potential FUD on the legal side of things. I don’t know if the same kind of methodology will work for a site dedicated to debunking FUD produced by mainstream media, blogs, and by companies in general, so this really is my little experiment to see if such a methodology can work.

Here’s my initial thoughts about how the site could work :

It will be a community effort. A community of people who, like me, see the benefit and importance of Free (as in Freedom) and Open Source software, and who want to do something to help keep that sentiment alive.

The method utilized on this site will be as follows;

1) An item of FUD will be discovered somewhere on the internet, whether it be a “news item” or an “opinion piece”.

2) The link to that item will be posted to the antiFUD discussion forums, complete with a description of the FUD involved.

3) Careful dissection and discussion of the FUD will ensue, and the community builds up a well-researched, backed up with factual information, antidote to the FUD.

4) When it is decided that the article/opinion piece in question has been suitably demolished, a blog entry will be created on the site’s front page with an antiFUD article to counteract the FUD article in question. Careful consideration will be made to be as courteous as possible, and most importantly, accurate, in the crafting of the blog article. The antiFUD article is now published and available on the internet, available to ANYONE to use, whether it’s an I.T. worker in a company who needs to explain to their bosses about the FUD that their boss read and has been influenced by said FUD, or just to anyone who needs some good fact-based information.

5) From time to time I will put in my own personal opinion pieces on a item of news I see on the internet. At the moment this is mostly how this site is going to be run, mainly because of a lack of readership yet *grin* but I’m really hoping to get some participation on the site from interested persons.

As you can see, the concept is reminiscent of Groklaw - it’s a community effort - but rather than being focused mainly on points of law, and lawsuits against Linux and the GPL as per Groklaw, I’m aiming for this site to be used to counteract the seemingly never-ending amount of FUD-laden articles being published on the internet. Not only that, but rather than having the main articles on the front page being issued from one main person, I’m eventually aiming that the community itself forms the basis of the eventual permanently placed antiFUD blog items. We’ll all do the research, dissection, and discussion together.

Please, feel free to register to the site and start your lookout for FUD articles.

Finally, as this experiment goes on, no doubt there will be changes galore as the site and community evolution goes forward, so, please accept my apologies in advance if there is any disruption to the site.