Meanwhile the NHS is quick to grasp the power of the idea. I'm much more interested in using public money to increase the public wealth than line the pockets of a few moghuls. She finds a precedent for her decision in the European Commission's decision in 1999 to preferentially fund development projects that yield free software as a project deliverable. Hardware manufacturers are delighted by the standard reference operating system, which cuts costs in supplying drivers and other specialised software. The boundaries between private knowledge and publication blur as biomedical knowledge is increasingly systematised on large databases.
Information wants to be valuable.
The technology to enable that future is here today, and the raw substrate for the knowledge system outlined in the fantasy above arrives tomorrow. Firstly, they need to think clearly about their own learning needs for IT skills, and move from being uncritical accepters of chronically unambitious and often shoddy software to active users and developers. They will find it financially to their advantage to do so. Underpinning that is must be an attitude that realises that high standards of patient care demand high standards of knowledge, application of knowledge, and communication, all of which requires high quality software, not the present disorganised babel. Only free software development can deliver this.