[linux-audio-dev] MMA memebership [was XAP: Some thoughts on control ramping]

[Patrick Shirkey]

> digidesign, we had the whole group in that room. i used to have
> friends who could have bought most of the companies represented there
> out of their own personal accounts :)) people planning on getting rich
> in this field are out of their minds.

In this context it's seems a little ridiculous that the MMA is requiring members of the mailing list to sign on with $450.

Wouldn't it be better for them to either start up an open mailing list or just do it here?

I get the impression that the forces involved in making this happen (Ron Kruper and other lurkers may want to speak up here) are missing the point of open source development. Sure it was ok to do what you seem to be doing with this new standard 20-30 years ago when the MIDI standard was created. Times have changed and now the world has open source development.

Applying closed methods of communication, or at least requiring a sum of money to be paid to have discussion rights is the equivalent of telling us Open Source developers that either you don't understand what we are doing and why or you totally disagree with the paradigm we work in.

Look at the development of the Kernel these days. In a total of 1000 (approx) highly active developers roughly 500 of them are employed by major corporations like IBM, HP, Intel, AMD... The list is obviously very large.

It is high time that the professional audio community got involved in the open source process. Your absence has become extreemely noticable. By attempting to make a protocol/specification that aims at providing cross platform functionality you cannot justify using closed, old economy methods of communication.

Not when there is a large number of developers who are already communicating on mass in the Open source community.

If you want an example of this paradigm working in an audio context you only need to look at the port-audio project. If you want to see the power of the Linux Audio Developers then the best example is JACK. We have created a protocol that neither M$ or Mac developers can provide a better option.

If it is the name of the mailing list that is putting you off from being involved around here, just ignore it. All we are doing is making machines work. The Linux part plays a very small role in the wider scheme.

Instead of spending the money on hiring someone to do the book keeping and running the mailing list etc... You could be channeling that into Open source. If those other companies can justify it then why can't you?



--
Patrick Shirkey - Boost Hardware Ltd.
For the discerning hardware connoisseur
Http://www.boosthardware.com
Http://www.djcj.org - The Linux Audio Users guide
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Being on stage with the band in front of crowds shouting, "Get off! No! We want normal music!", I think that was more like acting than anything I've ever done.

Goldie, 8 Nov, 2002
The Scotsman