Manifesto Of The People

Jonni Bidwell’s political views have probably gotten him on all kinds of lists. Now, after meeting James Smith, he’s convinced open democracy is the way forward.

- James Smith

James Smith is Head of Labs at the Open Data Institute. Like many in the UK, James (@floppy on Twitter) was frustrated at the state of UK politics. Unlike many though, he took his software wrangling skills and used them to make a stand, starting his own political party, Something New. He stood for election in 2010, and while this was unsuccessful he has continued to develop the idea of an open source party manifesto, central to the syncretic vision of Something New. We met him after his talk at OSCON Europe to discuss his experience. You can read his call to action “It’s Time to Step Up” at https://floppy.org.uk/blog/2013/07/05/ its-time-to-step-up.

Linux Format: Before braving the lion’s den that is politics, you were a software engineer, what sort of stuff did you work on?

James Smith: I still am a software engineer – I  haven’t fallen entirely to the dark side just yet – but yes, I worked on all sorts: biometrics, flight simulation for a while, more recently web based  stuff. I spent a few years working on climate  change type startups and then more recently  working on open data –getting more  accountability and transparency information  out there. Always trying to make the world a  better place.

LXF: What was your introduction to open source?