On Sunday 19 September 2010, Anthony Carrico wrote:
> On 09/19/2010 07:12 PM, Rion D'Luz wrote:
> > Hail Vaguers:
>
> so why not stand on the shoulders of giants?
Absolutely! I'd have run with Coherent if it got adopted and
became a labor of love, but the way the stars lined up,
GNU, torvalds, coders contributing to build a free thing from self-interest;
like everything else of real value - the predecessors set the stage.
What I like most about it is that it runs contrary to the marketplace and
the notion of value-in-scarcity.
This is value in abundance. So much so that it has a lot of people worried
and working actively bring it down.
> So, we end up with one-off topics and little follow up.
> Interestingly, this is almost the opposite problem of the one Josh put
> his finger on.
I know. On the one hand, its fun to see what other ppl are up to and chat up
the 'big picture'
where the flip-side being that, if that's all there is - is it enough to
sustain continuity and individual relevance.
>
> Touching on your last topic, vague is a good place to preach to the
> choir, but that doesn't necessarily make it a great forum for advocacy.
I think we're waay beyond the preaching, you cant preach to cats anyhow; its
just fun
to sing-a-long as a good-standing member of the alley-cat choir:)
> Our first important role is to keep the fire burning so we always have a
> local community for mutual support and to welcome others when the light
> goes on in their head. I don't see that as a walled-garden.
Referring to another post by Rob, I don't think OSS has to be centric to 'nix
despite being (finally) a viable 'mainstream' alternative. OSS and 'nix may go
hand-in-hand
for us, but i feel the OSS 'message' is more important than the underlying
systems they run on.
It's about increasing choices, even if its OO instead of Office on win7.
Increasing the ways to do one thing, and all that....
When I was at UNH, everyone ran unix,xterms....
Now, M$ has insuinated itself into the classroom to the point that finding
hackers (termed loosly and in the US specifically)
is more challenging than ever; regardless of OSS being on windows, phones and
toasters.
Since you didn't mention it, I think it bears repeating vis-a-vis the garden:
In light of current events one cannot take OSS and its future for granted,
despite Rob's optimism.
The power of self-interested corporations and governments is too strong to stop
their drive for control;
for trying to turn the Internet into a big TV, DRM's to track your every move
and controls what you can see
or where you can go. We have nearly 10 years of indicators that BigBro is not
going away any time soon.
Yesterday is was national security, today its lost sales from piracy, tommorrow
its signals interference of right-of-way,
next week; well, its just tuesday, locked down and buttoned up.
The undeniable fact is that the public domain is being hijacked, and OSS is
nothing if not fully representing, championing, public space.
Soon, it will have an enormous emotional target on its back that will make
defending it (and freedom) next to impossible.
I have just started putting up notice on my own websites that, in light of
safe-harbor judgments, user input will no longer
be featured. This is my best way to protest the courts decision(s) to favor the
big content players.
Now, if every webmaster followed suit, forums shut down, comments turned off,
youtube 'submit' grayed out, etc...
The interactivity of the web would cease, people would clamor..... and
politicans would dial back their insanity.
So, are we walled like an exclusive country-club? Hardly:) Are we walled by our
own interests and a limited audience?
Probably. I submit that only by reaching out and extending what we do to the
greater pub...@large (random(OSSacts))
can we ensure a bountiful supply of new-blood that we can confuse and make fun
of ('After' they've paid for the beers) at our monthlies.
The much bigger camel in the tent is the ever-present likelihood that despite
whatever agreements may be verbally expressed
putting the words to the test of commitment, investment, etc... actually
'making' time out of otherwise busy schedules;
rarely happens. I think much of the reasons are due to the disparity of our
specializations as much as distance or time;
and adds weight to the need for real, tangible incentives.
As you said earlier:
> The more niche groups like PHP and .net can probably pursue topics deeper
> just because of their specialized interest.
or, because they have more in common it's easier for them organize events
from a larger sub-set of committed members.
which translates into their garden having more public doorways.
Thing is, as much as i like php (or perl, or python) I feel that VAGUE is more
of a braintrust; the knowledge-base here
(even if not collated or organized) is as substantial as I've seen anywhere.
From wires-n-iron, to systems, applications,
devices, AND programming...
how it gets harnessed, if at all, the the kahuna ?
Be well, and don't forget to FLOSS! (is my new mantra)
Rion
--
email: riondluz_at_gmail.com
web: http://dluz.com/
AIM/Jabber/Google: riondluz
Phone: 802.644.2255
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/6/126/769
CLI forever!
L I N U X .~.
Choice /V\
of a GNU /( )\
Generation ^^-^^
POSIX
RULES
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
by Haedrian (1676506) on Monday September 06, @10:33AM (#33488416)
> Since this effects all of us in a huge way, there will be some sort of
referendum
> which will see what the PEOPLE want and not just the
corporation-bribed governments.
Experts say it'll happen on the 30th of Feburary at Half Past Never.
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