Needless to say, this is a big topic and one that encompasses a broad range of opinions. My list will be different from someone who runs a FOSS project, someone whose primary and perhaps sole business is FOSS, someone in academia, and someone who is strictly a user of software. I look forward to reading other peoples’ lists, either here or via links in the comments.

In 2008, I think that we collectively should …

1. Evolve open standards intellectual property licenses and development processes to be more friendly to free and open source. In the same way, increase the involvement of FOSS developers in open standards development.
2. Develop common models of FOSS use and governance for corporations and other organizations to adopt. My sense is that there are good consulting opportunities here.
3. Create more industry-specific free and open source software, perhaps following the examples of Sakai and Moodle in the education area.
4. Help governments adopt free and open source-friendly IT policies that permit maximal apples-to-apples comparisons of FOSS and proprietary software with regard to relative value for total cost of ownership, local business generation, and innovation of technology for the social good.
5. Convert more technology late adopters to be users of free and open source software like GNU/Linux, Eclipse, and OpenOffice.org.
6. Convert more free and open source technology early adopters to be new FOSS project leaders and developers.
7. Use more free and open source software in schools for students of all ages.
8. Educate more computer science majors about the free and open source development models, and educate more business students about the variety of FOSS economic models.
9. Cease the production and use of new vanity free and open source licenses unless they represent some form of legal intellectual breakthrough.
10. Develop more mainstream consumer-focused software such as graphical games and virtual worlds that run on multiple client platforms, including GNU/Linux.