The Jakarta Site - Understanding Opensource
2011/12/21 - Jakarta has been retired.
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Understanding Opensource
With the opensource system, if you find any deficiency in the project, the
onus is on you to redress that deficiency. Opensource projects provide you
with the means and mechanism to not only remove inadequecies in any part of
the project but also to improve the project. Without this positive feedback
loop an opensource project dies. Opensource doesnt improve by advocacy,
mindshare, or by having 10 million users, it improves by the participation
and contribution from the user community.
What that boils down to is, if you see something wrong and do nothing about
it, the opensource system hasnt failed you, *you* have failed the opensource
system.
So if I am missing a needed feature in a project and I do nothing about it, it
is my own fault for not getting off my lazy arse and taking advantage of the
participation opensource allows. One of the things that really annoys me is
the continual slagging of some of the other opensource projects that get
more media time. It is ok slagging a proprietary product as often you have no
other way of getting your neck into the user-development feedback loop. But
slagging an opensource project is ignorant. The whole mechanism exists to
empower the user. If there is something that would cause that person to slag
a project then it means enough to them to do something about it. In simpler
words, fix it! :)
As a rule marketers count bodies lol. With a proprietary product, if I like
it, the only way I am allowed to participate in it's improvement is by
buying it. The more I buy, the more likely it is to be successful and
provide me with something stable and persistent in the future to develop and
deploy with. The more users that buy the proprietary product, add to that
companies ability to improve that product. This includes not only the cost
of the development but all the other stuff that goes along with it, like
profit, marketing etc. So my buying dollars dont directly go to the
improvement of that product, even so lots of users is good for a proprietary
products future.
Using
Turbine
as an opensource example, its
continued improvement and success is directly proportional to the user
community *participation*. If I contribute something to Turbine then
100% of my "something" has gone to improve
Turbine
, rather than a tiny percentage of the
purchase price I paid for a proprietary product. One contributing user
in an opensource project would be worth 10,000 sold units of a
proprietary product. In both cases the same amount or value of
improvements would result.
For the above reason, the "more users" isn't important in opensource, we
all use
Turbine
for our own reasons. But
contributing and participating is definately important for the
improvement of an opensource project, and in our case
Turbine
. Contributing and participating in
Turbine
is a commonality we should all share :)
Cameron Riley
criley NO SPAM ekmail.com
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