yeah. nice to hear that. I too have a feeling that this wont work in FOSS, as you said,Especially in software development sector. In service sector, it is little different i think.(the first post didnt thrust on the 'service' sector) While software development is a thrilling effort, service could be like repeating the same thing many many times.. It may not be that inspiring to everybody . (though there are exceptions. There are un-perspiring people inside) I think it would certainly be cool to get a commitment from the benificiary. how ever small it is. Like "I made a traffic board straight" or "I gave my old text book to this school boy" or "i invited my friend to play a game in my FOSS system"or anything like that.
Fsug-Tvm has 14375 messages until today. hoping one fifth of it are queries (2875) from the end-users[ non-code contributing/non bug reporting ] and half of them made some commitments, we would see some 1437.5 positive social activities. If all these would be put in a web site,it would be really cool to see. It would certainly pull more contributors to the list. It would be a refreshing activity to reply to querries then, even if it is pakka repetition. What if the beneficiary attributes the activity to those who responds to their quiries? it would certainly be great to 'feel with fingers' the impact you made in the society. And those people who just cant ask for help without presenting a reciprocating gift, would be very happy to ask for help. There are a million people who just wont take free lunch, even in the form of free service :) .Will be good, if they have a space for showing how they give back.. Obligation would always make it harmfull, but a platform to express would be nice know? Certainly, would like to hear more, when you are free .. On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 8:39 AM, Robin S. Parriath <[email protected]>wrote: > Hey Nishandh, > > See my comments inline. > > > On 05/18/2010 10:09 PM, nishandh M wrote: > > Hi everybody, would you mind making a choice / comment ? > I am not standing on any side in this thread, just would like some opinions > please. hope there wont be flaming, I understand the content is little > irritating. > > Ideas aren't irritating. Only the tone in which they are put forward. I, > for one, don't find this irritating/annoying/worth flaming. ;-) > > > > 0) Is there any need, to prevent social parasites feeding on the > contributors effort? (NO/YES) > > No. "Social parasites" as you call them are the typical end users. They > want to use stuff without having to bother about how it is made or the > philosophy behind it. > Preventing them from using applications would be detrimental to the > Free/Open Source, as they would simply switch to pirated products. This > would unwittingly reduce demand for FLOSS products and thus the demand for > the contributors. (If required, I'll explain my point further with examples > after my exams :-D .) > > > > > 2) If there is an need, how do we accomplish it? > Share the specific distro only among those who sign a *contribute-alike* > licence? > "Contribute alike" is an agreement which is formed between Distro developer > community ( structured FOSS service provider community ). Its states the > users should contribute. > > I don't see a need. The user base for most successful opensource product > roughly looks like this: > > 90% - Users (no contribution) > 09% - Bug reporters and contributors in other ways > 01% - Developers > > (I'm writing these proportions out of memory. The actual is probably > slightly different. However, it is a good approximation.) > > This isn't necessarily a bad thing. The more the number of people, the > more the demand for the product, and it is this demand that fuels growth for > the product and it's contributors. > > Note: The success of a product is not how many contributors it has, but > how many users it has. Any effort to curb this number will reflect badly on > the product. > > > > > 3) *What all could be the terms of a contribute-alike license?* > > a) Support the developers with resonable donations in cash. > > If the developers want to ask for cash, they can sell the product/services > or ask for donations. All open source licenses allow this. > And people do contribute to keep their favourite projects alive. eg: > wikipedia > > > > > b) Make an obligate (relaxed) agreement on the user would contribut to > FOSS > > If end users are bothered with obligations, they will choose not to be > obligated at all. > > > > > c) Time-bank (spend some hours in any way good for the socety. any > progressive way, not only IT service) > > [email protected] discusses time banking concepts around kerala.(I > am not the lead, i am just an ardent reader of time banking) > http://www.timebanks.org/, > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-based_currency are interesting reads. > > Like you pointed out in an earlier thread, there are a class of people > who cannot be bothered with these. (doctors, etc.) > > > > > d) Making a commitment would make people reluctant to adopt the specific > Distro > > +1. C-DAC, India has a Debian based distro BOSS linux. It is really good > and has most stuff that people need, as well as a very good support for > regional languages. > The problem with it is that the forum is too tightly guarded. (My request > to join has been pending for weeks.) As a result, it has just ~100 > registered members. Restrictions can only hurt inclusion. > > > > > e) People would readily adopt the Distro, as most of them are wiling to > contribute to the society, and be a part of something progressive. > > +1. Most people don't know what a distro is. As more people get > involved, more people would also inevitably start contributing. Note: The > point is not that all people contribute. It is that there is a size-able > community. > > > > > f) There is no phenomenon/process like 'parasitisation on GPL product' in > FOSS world, it would just add confusion. > > d) Distro development team would be much more pleased to commit, as there > is direct evidence of social change, and never has to bear with a feeling > that they are feeding permanent 'free lunch eaters'. > > The distro teams contribute due to many reasons. For some - it's a job, > for others - it's a hobby, but for most, it's what they like to do. > So they'll contribute whether people contribute back or not. Not all > people are looking for a reward. For some, the work is its own reward. > > > > > d) This is all already understood, there is no need of > formalisation/discussion/consolidation. > > There is always room for discussion. But once a particular track has been > identified as irrelevant, it must be discarded. To quote our honourable > Home minister, "*A 20 hour debate doesn't contribute anything more than a > 3 hour debate.*" > > > > e) Phrase (0) is too offensive, redraft., > > +1. :-) > > > > f) a better word for "contribute-alike" : > > If the license does come to being (I hope not), "contribute-alike" seems > like a good name. > > > > g)This is hard to put to practice > > i)This would be impractical > > If it helps, it should be put into practice. However, IMHO, it is > detrimental to FLOSS movement. > > > Regards, > Robin > > -- > "Freedom is the only law". > "Freedom Unplugged" > http://www.ilug-tvm.org > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "ilug-tvm" group. > To control your subscription visit > http://groups.google.co.in/group/ilug-tvm/subscribe > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > > > > For details visit the google group page: > http://groups.google.com/group/ilug-tvm?hl=en > -- #//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////# "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" Leonardo da Vinci #//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////# -- "Freedom is the only law". "Freedom Unplugged" http://www.ilug-tvm.org You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ilug-tvm" group. 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