Derek Wall, principal male speaker for the GPEW, would agree -- although not all Greens, he stresses, would necessarily share his emphasis. "For me personally, [FOSS is] about a green economy based on the principles of using resources creatively," Wall says.
"It provides an alternative notion of property rights. It's a new version of commons, and for me commons are a way ... of increasing prosperity without wasteful growth in throw-away consumption."
Most importantly, for the GPEW, FOSS represents a new approach to basic activist issues. "FOSS," Wall says, "is a concept that cuts through the stale debates around state or private economic control of either the individual or the collective." FOSS, he adds, is an alternative to "the wrong kind of economics, based on growth in waste, short term profit, [and] endless commodification of nature."
As Chance explains, the sharing of code in FOSS makes the question of whether it is released by a private or public group largely irrelevant since, either way, the license assures that everyone can benefit.
This vision, while idealistic, is very much in keeping with the frequent declarations of Green Parties worldwide that they represent an alternative to the liberal and conservative spectrum of mainstream traditional politics. For example, Wall notes that in opposing software patents in the European Parliament, GPEW members Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas were part of a coalition that included representatives from both socialist and center-right parties.
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