IP: open source interests

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date:         Tue, 7 Apr 1998 23:49:30 -0700
From: Judi Clark <judic () manymedia com>
Subject:      open source interests
:
:


Yesterday, O'Reilly (publishers) convened a meeting that I thought
might be of interest to this group. The attendees at the meeting
included a few names we may have never heard of yet whose work we
depend on each day:


Sameer Parakh, C2/Stronghold software
Paul Vixie, BIND
Brian Behlendorf, Apache
Eric Allman & Greg Olson, Sendmail
Tom Paquin & Jamie Zawinski, Netscape
Linus Torvalds, Linux
Tim O'Reilly
Larry Wall, perl
John Ousterhaut, Tcl/Tk
Guido van Rossum, Python
John Gilmore (various)
Eric Raymond, "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" (excellent article)
Phil Zimmermann, PGP
and several others


I've been hoping to see an effort of this kind for some time now,
and was happy to attend the press event following the meeting.
The main things covered at the meeting were establishing some
terminology ("open source means source code open to the public"),
and starting to look at methodology for any kind of collaborations
that might emerge. One point that came out clearly was the need
for the public to see and understand the significance of this
model of software development, and its prevalence in our lives.
No big PR departments to alert the press when new developments
come along.


Yes, it was clear that much of the press was largely lost in this
new world. Was it Open Source vs. Microsoft? How was Open Source
ever going to make it in a shrinkwrapped world? And how will the
press know what's coming next? Little did they know that shrinkwrap
is, we were told, but a small percent of the overall software-
related business world. And how would anyone make a living in this
Open Source world? (As if distribution and customer support were
not the major expenses? Driving down the cost of distribution still
leaves a whale of an opportunity, as Cygnus and C2 demonstrate!)


The main points to be shared are the following:


1. Open source runs a lot of stuff now.
2. Open source software development spawns new businesses and models
3. There is a social impact yet to be discovered
4. Open source demonstrates new ideas through mass usage
5. protects freedom of choice, keeps the market honest


The work is beginning to increase awareness and mindshare. Just as
some of us are coders and testers...


I'm sure you will see more info about this meeting soon on O'Reilly's
web site. The press release (with links) is found at:
  http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/press/freeware.html


You might also be interested in the "grim scenario" at the beginning
of this article:
  http://www.netaction.org/articles/freesoft.html


  judi