Freely-Given.org Heroes Page

Here we will be posting short snippets praising those who have inspired Freely-Given.org in the field of open-licensed materials generously given as a gift to the world.

(Most recent entries first)

Michael Paul Johnson (Kahunapule) and the World English Bible (WEB) and eBible.org

The WEB was the first openly-downloadable Bible that I came across—it’s not just open-licenced but it’s public domain so you can pretty much do whatever you want with it. You’ll find the WEB in pretty much any and every Bible app, as well as its various versions (like the WMB). Not only that, eBible.org generously distributes many minority-language Bibles including the source files. It was the World English Bible that inspired the creation of our forthcoming, new Open English Translation. We acknowledge Michael as a visionary and leader in the open Bible movement. May many other Bible translators be inspired to be so generous, especially in the modern world where Bible downloads could be made available on the internet for fractions of a cent. (May 2023)

Linus Torvalds and Linux

Linux is the computer operating system that is installed on the most computers in the world—all the way from tiny micro-controllers to supercomputers, and the basis for Android used on mobile devices. The first versions developed in the early 1990’s were created by Linus, and against the trend at the time, he did not rush to trademark the name and prevent distribution of his work—rather he strove to keep it free and open (despite later attempts by others to limit and control it). As it developed, Linux inspired the founder of Freely-Given.org as we discovered it in our quest to avoid the viruses that frequently infected Microsoft-Windows systems. Then as we learnt more, we came to admire the creator and his more than thirty years of leadership in the project. We find it regrettable that so many Christian authors and content creators rush to exert copyright and monetarise their work online, when the notion of the world-wide-web could not exist as it is without the generous and insightful work of Linus Torvalds being given freely. May many other developers be inspired to be so generous, especially in the Bible world where one might think actively sharing “God’s Word” to be a priority. (May 2022)