Reflections on the concept of freedom

The editorial team’s question was posed in an article on the theme of the University's external website, which was freedom. A handful of staff got in touch and shared their thoughts.

And here they are.

Rikard’s reflections

“I’m a systems developer in a research team. My and my colleagues’ day-to-day work involves developing software to facilitate research and to implement scientific methods. As a team, we develop free, open-source software and distribute it freely and openly for anyone to use. This is a way of disseminating new scientific methods, but also a way of opening up for collaboration and community building. Currently, most scientific institutions in academia and industry in this field use some of the software we have developed. Some also contribute to developments. In turn, we depend on and collaborate with a variety of open-source software packages that accelerate our development and allow us to ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’”.

At the heart of open-source software are the four freedoms (link to Wikipedia)

• The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
• The freedom to study how the program works and change it to do your programming the way you want. Access to the source code is a prerequisite for this.
• The freedom to distribute copies so you can help your neighbour.
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. This way, you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a prerequisite for this.

“I believe that open source helps us do better research, but perhaps more importantly, it promotes collaboration, community building and gives freedom to both users and developers of software, and I think Uppsala University could play a bigger role in this.”

Anna’s reflections

“To get a sense of freedom, it’s important for me to be able to share insights, perceptions and experiences and express my opinions in conversations, meetings and on other occasions without anyone interrupting, responding with personal attacks, raising their voice unreasonably or otherwise preventing others from hearing what I say.

“Freedom also includes the opportunity to listen to others’ responses to what I say/express and to hear about others’ insights, perceptions and experiences, which requires that they feel secure and have the confidence to express themselves without anyone preventing them from talking by using the methods I mentioned in the first paragraph.

“(Compare the recent events in several Swedish cities where people on different sides of the Hamas-Israel conflict use various methods to express their opinion: Threatening/calm, shouting/tone of voice, etc. Also compare it to domination techniques, which occur in many places, such as dinners with relatives, work meetings and in parliamentary debates. These behaviours limit everyone’s freedom to share and access information, knowledge and opinions).”

Mikael’s reflections

“This represents what I think.” (link to Youtube)

Camilla’s reflections

• “Freedom = being able to be unrestricted in your thoughts and choices without fear of repercussions
• Freedom = being able to live without fear
• Freedom = being able to pay your way
• Freedom = good and free healthcare for all

(Maybe not so academic, but freedom in life)”

Petter’s reflections

“Exciting theme! I myself was born and raised in Uppsala, and have just returned to the city and my alma mater after twenty-five years in other cities and countries... so it was interesting to read your articles on this topic, as well as to get an explanation of the seemingly unmodern motto.

“Freedom is important in many areas – in a relationship, for example, but also in working life. Freedom requires trust. Freedom also opens up new angles and perspectives, and thus counters narrow-mindedness, navel-gazing and uniformity. Freedom is therefore not only desirable in itself, but also important if we want to gain new insights.

“Thanks to this wider perspective, for me, freedom in academia is closely related to interdisciplinarity. When I now see the old motto again outside the Grand Auditorium, I think it should have said:

TO THINK BROADLY IS GREATER”

Columns

In response to the question, some staff members are also planning to write columns for the Staff Gateway on the topic of freedom, and we will publish these as they are completed.

Anders Berndt