Landon Blake wrote:
I am curious what the list would think if I modified my original idea
for an article somewhat. Let's say I drop any concept of a comparison
standard or a rating system. Let's also say I concentrate not on evil
companies abuse the management of an open source project, but instead
talk about what a company can do right and what they might want to
avoid.
What if the title/theme of my article became "Going Open Source - Tips
For Business On Successful Community Building"? The article could
provide information for businesses that want to become involved in open
source, and perhaps even release some of their code under open source,
and are looking for some advice on how to manage that type or release in
a way that will encourage the growth of a healthy user and developer
community.
Landon,
This sounds like a very constructive approach.
P.S. - I think there are still some issues here that deserve some more
discussion. For example, the idea that "any open source code is good
code" troubles me a little bit. Are we saying as a wider community that
we don't care what a companies motives for releasing code is, as long as
that code is released under an open source license?
I don't think it is important to judge motives. But clearly lots of
code that is released as open source is either junk, or a distraction.
Some code released as open source is not really worthy of attention.
I wonder if there are still 2 "camps" in our open source world. There
are some that approach open source from a very practical,
business-oriented perspective. Then there are others that believe "open
source" is part of a wider ideology based on cooperation, mutual
respect, and similar ideas. I wonder if some behavior would be
acceptable to the first group, but not at all acceptable to the second
group. I also wonder which group I find myself in.
Loosely speaking there are two camps and this will color reactions. Of course
these "camps" are not uniform either. I am involved in open source for
ideological reasons, but that is more like my private religion. When I
discuss the matter I try to do so in terms of practical benefits and it is
very important to me to take a broad "big tent" approach - to avoid being
exclusionary.
Best regards,
--
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up | Frank Warmerdam, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org
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