On Saturday 08 December 2007 14:06:37 Dave Crossland wrote: > I think its important to distinguish between the publication of > private, internal tools as free software, and the publication as free > software of software required to view BBC media.
I think you have to be careful here. I (deliberately) didn't mention the phrase free software at all. It opens too many cans of worms - as recent discussions of what constitutes "free" demonstrate (Anyone who's been around free & open source software long enough knows that this argument crops up over and over again). You might not agree with others that their definition is right, but who judges what is right and wrong? Some actions which we'd feel free to do here are forbidden as wrong in some places (esp as some cultural clashes recently show). Who judges what is right and wrong there? That said, I'm *not* getting into that again though. Also, generally, using an argument based on free software tends to fail - since we're really required to think pragmatically (based on experience) rather than ideologically. An argument around open standards is generally more effective. Even then different group have different views on what an open standard is. Compare for example: * http://www.mheg.org/ * http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/ Also, whilst yes, the subprojects are internal tools, the main project itself had somewhat wider scope. Aside from that, your point is, in my opinion, a good example of something that directly impacts or should be impacted by section 87 paragraph 4 of the charter agreement, and why, again in my opinion, "best/common practice" might be better than policy. > Hope to hear more about the sub-project releases at the Backstage > party I don't think I'll be at the backstage party. (personal reasons - nothing to do with backstage - hope everyone has fun :-) I'll write more (probably on the dev list) when I'm closer to doing those releases. (as I say, something I'll be doing over christmas) You may find these articles useful though: http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/t/TN-LinuxFormat-Kamaelia.pdf * Article written for Linux Format last year on the whiteboard. The actual published version was editted better and had much better formatting and pictures :-) http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/t/TN-LightTechnicalIntroToKamaelia.pdf * A light technical introduction to Kamaelia written for Linux Magazin Germany at their request :-) I think this is probably one of the better introductions/overviews. (I might type fast, but good writing is much harder than good code) Regards, Michael. -- All opinions mine, no one else's - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
