Re: For Google and Others, Few Good Deeds Go Unpunished

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Titus Brown <titus () caltech edu>
Date: December 5, 2007 11:06:08 PM EST
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Re: [IP] For Google and Others, Few Good Deeds Go Unpunished
Reply-To: titus () idyll org

-> >From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
-> >Date: December 4, 2007 8:09:44 PM EST
-> >To: dave () farber net
-> >Cc: lauren () vortex com
-> >Subject: For Google and Others, Few Good Deeds Go Unpunished
-> >
-> >
-> >
-> >           For Google and Others, Few Good Deeds Go Unpunished
-> >
-> >               http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000334.html
-> >
-> >
-> >Greetings.  Back in July when I inflicted upon the Net my Gilbert
-> >and Sullivan parody "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major Googler"
-> >( http://lauren.vortex.com/googler ), these lyrics were included:
-> >
-> >  But companies worth billions are between a rock and a hard place,
-> >  Try do things really right and stockholders may just spit in
-> >  your face.

In the vein of Google "doing things right", I'm surprised that no
mention of the Google Highly Open Participation Contest has passed the
IP list.

http://code.google.com/opensource/ghop/2007-8/

This is a contest for 13-and-up around the world, in which small awards
(including $$) are given for completing tasks specified by 3rd-party
foundations.  It's similar to the Google Summer of Code, which is for
college students.

Google's primary purpose in these programs seems to be to increase the
number and quality of Open Source programmers.  While there are a number
of indirect benefits to Google -- good publicity, a well-trained
population of potential Google employees, and better open source
projects for them to build upon -- this really seems to be a
straightforward contribution back to the community upon which Google and
many other companies depend.

I've been involved with the Python Software Foundation's GSoC, and I'm
one of the four people running the PSF's GHOP effort.  We've been very
surprised and impressed with the skill, intelligence, and enthusiasm of
the contributors so far.

Google has yet to be punished for the contributions, but I'm waiting to
see what the 'net conspiracy theorists come up with ;)

cheers,
--titus


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