Digital Tools
As social work strives to maintain relevance within the cultural norms of the societies it practices in, increased dependence on digital systems to produce the means of communication leaves the profession in a position where digital competency may become an emerging skillset required of social workers in the 21st century. Free, open-source software (F/OSS), “GNU’s Not Unix” General Public License (GNU/GPL), and the Creative Commons License (CCL) provide a radical alternative to societies bases of power that inherently exist in capitalism through traditional copyright law (Sullivan, 2011).
The aforementioned licensing initiatives disrupt the paradigm of centrally-controlled software distribution through the forging of communitarian-based movements that allow for the masses to freely gain access to the community-generated computer code that is used to create software.
There is a variety of programs in existence under F/OSS, GNU/GPL, and CCL licensing that can provide increased digital functionality to social workers. As argued by Sullivan (2011), the aims of F/OSS, GNU/GPL, and CCL is a social justice movement of free speech that counters the discourses of contemporary capitalism. While technology can not solve all social problems, access to free software that fulfills the utilitarian needs of practitioners and clients while providing an opportunity to challenge systems that are built on commodification of utilities for the digital means of production.
A collection of F/OSS, GNU/GPL, & CCL resources can be found below to meet a multitude of digital needs by social workers and clients who either seek to challenge the current systems of production or save costs associated with an increasingly digital world.
Software currently under consideration:
Clam AV (Antivirus software)
VLC Player (Media player with recording, streaming, and screen recording capabilities)
Krita (Graphics editor with some features similar to photoshop. Software is geared towards painting and 2D animation)
GIMP (Graphics editor with features similar to photoshop)
OBS Studio (Video screen capture and streaming software)
KDEN Live (A powerful video editing application)
PSPP (A statistics analytics software alternative to SPSS. Runs on Linux/Unix/macOS)
LibreOffice (A free office alternative to Corel and Microsoft office suites)
Open Office (A free office alternative to Corel and Microsoft office suites)
As I discover more applications I will update this list 🙂
References
Sullivan, J. L. (2011). Free, open source software advocacy as a social justice movement: The expansion of F/OSS movement discourse in the 21st century. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 8(3), 223-239.