Gore's 'open source' blasphemy

Just a day after it launched, Vice President Al Gore's Web site for his 2000 presidential campaign has already become an object of ridicule in tech circles for co-opting one of programming's sacred cows -- open source.

algore2000.com launched Monday, and, in a section titled "Open Source," made the following invitation: "This is your web site -- IT'S OPEN SOURCE -- and I want you to help us build it. Take a look at our source code. Send us your ideas on how to improve it, and build a better campaign Web site."

By Tuesday morning, Slashdot, the "news for nerds" site, had taken up the cudgels over Gore's open source invitation, which seemed to confuse programming with Web site design. Slashdot's Rob Malda asked readers, "Can a web site be open source? Al Gore says so, and the man did create the Internet, after all" -- referring to the vice president's botched attempt in a CNN interview to take credit for "creating" the Internet.

Slashdot slaps back
As expected, Slashdot's readers gave Gore 2000 a shellacking for appropriating "open source" -- a tech reference for nonproprietary, open-to-all software systems such as the Linux OS that has attained mythical status since it was touted by the Free Software Foundation's Richard Stallman in 1984.

"The open source software movement can not be colonized or appropriated to your parochial, political purposes," wrote one anonymous reader. "Any 'open source' software given to the Democrats would BY LOGICAL NECESSITY have to be given also to the Republicans and Reform and Green and Socialist and Little-Green-Men parties. That FACT of the open source movement is what makes your appeal so patently absurd."

Another reader called Dr Jest weighed in: "Lovely, a few years from now Gore will feel justified in taking credit for open source. You think Stallman's pissed now, wait 'til this happens."

"Does this mean we can use any content on the page to establish a Web site to mock Gore?" asked Omegalomaniac.

Sybir responded: "We'll see what Gore's interpretation of 'open source' is after a few good satires pop up. If you actually read the fine print, all you're doing is volunteering to do web design -- sounds like Gore is grabbing catchphrases again, and you know what that means."

Just for kids
It wasn't the first stumble over the site. The campaign rushed Tuesday to remove from its new Web site questions asking children for their names, e-mail addresses and zip codes -- a practice soon to be outlawed on some Internet sites by legislation Congress approved last year.

The campaign stripped the questions from the "Just for Kids" section of its Web site less than one hour before the pages were published Tuesday on the Internet, after The Associated Press saw the questions during a preview for news organizations and raised questions during his trip to Silicon Valley.

A new privacy law, signed by the President Clinton last year, generally prohibits asking children such questions on commercial Web sites unless companies first obtain a parent's permission.

The law takes effect in 2001, although federal regulators -- who have yet to determine how they will enforce the ban -- indicated Tuesday it won't cover campaign Internet sites.

As originally designed, Gore's Web site offered children the opportunity to receive campaign materials electronically if they submitted their first and last name, e-mail address and zip code. They also could send Gore questions via e-mail.

The site also included a link to a privacy statement -- rare among the Web pages of any of the presidential candidates -- with specific suggestions for children, such as warning them not to give out personal information without a parent's permission.

Campaign officials maintain that their original version would not have violated the new privacy law, but they decided to remove the questions anyway -- except for asking children their first name.

Kids can still electronically send questions to Gore, who promised to reply to one or two each day on the Web. But the campaign added a warning to "PLEASE ask your parents if it is OK to give us the following information before you submit questions."

Gore's campaign manager, Craig Smith, said he ordered the changes after talking with lawyers and considering his own feelings as a father. Smith's children helped work on Gore's "Just for Kids" pages.

"It is important that the vice president's office set a good example, so I commend them for making the changes," said Kathryn Montgomery, president of the Washington-based Center for Media Education.

The FTC said Tuesday it doesn't consider a campaign Web site to be commercial, and thus subject to the new law. But some privacy groups suggested the law might apply to any site with a ".com" Web address, such as Gore's.

Gore recently drew ridicule when he said in an interview that he helped create the Internet, a remark he later blamed on being tired. He has been a strong supporter of federal spending to boost technology.

Associated Press contributed to this story