On Sat, Jan 14, 2006 at 10:52:49AM -0800, Jeff wrote:
> "It's the internet, stupid"
>
> ONLamp.com: There Is No Open Source Community
> http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2006/01/12/no_oss_community.html
Looks like propaganda from the O'Reilly/Raymond camp to me. O'Reilly has
been looking to debunk this idea of an ideological community since 1998--a
fact the article states plainly. They describe the success of the open
source moniker, but conveniently leave out the fact that the open source
community is not the pragmatic alternative to the free software zealots
they so want you to stop paying attention to.
Because they have failed to do so, they must marginalize or eliminate the
influence of that community. I suspect--but do not claim--that others who
actually know these people might agree that Eric Raymond, Bruce Perens,
Richard Stallman, and the others of their kind are basically resident
gasbags in the community, always prepared to offer their own opinions as
the conscious will of the community without bothering to consult us first.
This is my opinion, and if you want to know what somebody else thinks you
maybe ought to ask them.
The claim of the article, obviously, is that there is no community. What
exists is rather just a natural consequence of the Internet, the article
argues. It is true that the notion of a single interconnected community
is a myth, but to claim that there is no community is disrespectful to the
members of certain key communities which make up the mythical global open
source community.
First we have the development communities. Without them, there would be
no open source. The notion that you should give away your code to the
world is largely a new concept--but the idea of sharing your code with
those around you isn't. At least, it isn't in the academic world. All
that the Internet does is make the community of those around you to share
with larger. These have spread beyond the academic communities now, and
the results have more than merely academic interest, but the underlying
bits are still there.
Am I missing something?
--
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act,
but a habit."
-- Aristotle
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