Readers of the Mozilla Geolocation list,
The stop energy from some folk on this list is remarkable. The lack of
empathy in the recent emails sent on the previous thread turns comments
which are otherwise merely ill-informed into a disagreeable reading
experience.
You might, as a community, decide to take your bearings on the purpose
of this list and shift your tone to a more encouraging, supportive,
humble, and considerate mode so as to make it more fun to be around.
Mozilla announces this list as a place to discuss issues and
contributions around the Mozilla Geolocation Service. To my knowledge,
there is no requirement that only OSI certified free software be used to
*contribute* observations to MLS. Therefore, it is perfectly appropriate
for anyone to discuss, announce, ask about the API, as about service
performance, or write emails about pretty much any topic that further
the goal of making Mozilla Geolocation Services great. The suggestions
to the contrary show both a willingness to exclude good work and the
lack of the self-analysis and self-criticism that make considerate
communities so fun to be around.
The response to my recent announcement of a piece of software which
provides users with a fun tool to gather and upload data to Mozilla
Location Service suggests you have work to do as a community. Contrast
OpenCellID's response to my recent inquiry into their API:
> Hi Adrian,
>
> First of all thank you very much for contributing to OpenCellID!!
> Chris, the lead developer of OpenCellID, will answer you next week.
> Unfortunately I don´t have this information.
>
> Cheers M.
to the response in this community
> No source code repository?
>
> H.
followed by an unrelated discussion on legal issues and you can clearly
the difference in tone, consideration, and enthusiasm of the former
community.
Finally, the lack of empathy [wondering for a second where the other
person is coming from] which pervades the various comments on the legal
situation make for unpleasant reading. The authors are not lawyers and
it shows. They do not know nearly as much about the subtleties
surrounding the legal situation of free software as other do; otherwise,
they would not allow themselves to make such wantonly unqualified
statements. But worse, the authors do not even stop themselves long
enough to wonder if their interlocutor might know as much if not more
than they do! Those of you lurking on the list will no doubt remember
the recent discussion of the licensing of the OpenStreetMap tiles. That
MLS chose to change its practice shows that it does not yet have a
final, complete understanding of all things legal. In consequence, an
open mind on legal issues might be warranted especially for a project
whose global scope will span the gamut of legal jurisdictions. No one on
this list has the qualifications to make absolute pronouncements on that
vast a subject! So, when something legally unusual comes up, you might
want to keep an open mind as to the possibility that it is doing
something cool and new, perhaps only in another corner of the world we
share.
goodbye and good luck,
~adrian
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