All technology that is used to exchange and distribution of ideas and information between people, should be free for all to access. More importantly when that technology is core for learning.
Knowledge is vital to help people to make choices correctly, as such everyone is entitled to have access to the best possible information possible. This is specially important in areas like education and health, where not having the relevant knowledge at hand could have lethal consequences or leave the the individual at an unfair disadvantage.
That individuals don't have access to relevant information in most areas, doesn't just have a negative impact on the individual. It also has negative impacts on the communities as a whole, since the lack of information can prevent them to make decisions on a timely manner and leave the community exposed to unnecessary ricks.
Yes, mistakes and misunderstanding will happen. Those are facts of life, yet are no reason to prevent people to be able to have access to the best and most complete informations they need in any given situation. Most importantly, knowing empowers us to take the best course of action for ourselves as individuals, and for our families and communities.
This is why we need that all informations we need to create knowledge to be made public on open standards, that can be implemented by as many people as possible. If not, we rick loosing much knowledge just because we no longer have the ability to open it because lost the key for it. This a very real possibility if the key is held by a single vendor, and it doesn't share it.
The user should be able to use whatever software he chooses to put his information in, and to share it with whom ever he wants without being restricted to use a particular platform to do so. The use of a particular platform should be dictated by the user needs, and how he chooses to work, not by the vendor choosing to implement a closed standard.
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