[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
On Thu, May 08, 2008 at 05:14:40PM -0500, P Kishor wrote:
On 5/8/08, Schuyler Erle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
is that the number-one sine-qua-non of *any* potentially successful
software project is *shipping working code*.
Until a developer does that, the discussion of whether or not his/her
project needs or deserves institutional/organizational support
That is not what this discussion is about, though. (And the point
seems self-evident, given this is a discussion about open source
software projects, defined by having working code "in the wild")
I would beg to differ. There's a lot that goes on BEFORE working code
is released into the wild. And very often, institutional support is
what makes it possible to write code and release it into the wild.
In a previous life, I ran a small hosting business, and relied entirely
on open source code. With the exception of Linux - admittedly a big
exception - everything else I was running had institutional origins,
with significant amounts of funding supporting the original developers.
Of particular note:
Apache: started as the NCSA daemon, funded largely by NSF (if I recall
correctly)
Sendmail: derived from ARPANET delivermail, developed in the university
environment
Sympa: open-source mailing list manager developed/supported by
consortium of French universities
These days, one of the things I do for a living is pursue government
funding so that our firm can develop new software. One of our current
projects very explicitly commits, contractually, to releasing our
results under the GPL. (Historical note: until the late 70s/early 80s,
work performed with government funding was generally released into the
public domain - and an awful lot of today's technology base dates back
to those years. IMHO, open source licenses are a reaction to the change
in policy that allows companies to maintain proprietary rights to
publicly funded work).
Miles
--
Miles R. Fidelman, Director of Government Programs
Traverse Technologies
145 Tremont Street, 3rd Floor
Boston, MA 02111
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
617-395-8254
www.traversetechnologies.com
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