Comments on: A New Age (part 2)

By: The New Age, part 4 | Martyholman.com

The New Age, part 4 | Martyholman.com — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:55:19 +0000

[...] A New Age (part 2) [...]

By: Open Sourcing: Good, Bad, or inevitable « Jeff’s deep thoughts

Open Sourcing: Good, Bad, or inevitable « Jeff’s deep thoughts — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:49:52 +0000

[...] Open Sourcing: Good, Bad, or inevitable There’s an outstanding discussion about open sourcing here. [...]

By: Marty Holman

Marty Holman — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:43:45 +0000

Wow guys, this is great discussion. Thanks for the insights Ian, Eric, and post stealing Jeff. You should refer to your blog as “Martysdeepthoughts” now. Just kidding. We’re open source here!

By: jeff

jeff — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:46:37 +0000

Hmmmm. I’m pondering the tension between intellectual proptery/free market capitalism and open sourcing. These ponderings are likely to be long-winded and rather pompous. I think I’ll blog me a little blog about the topic rather than confining my pompousity here.
(I’ll leave it to you to determine: Is my stealing your topic and running with it to my own blog an emblem of what is right or what is wrong with the whole open sourcing menality?)

By: Eric Mill

Eric Mill — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:22:17 +0000

Just to back up what Ian said, “open source” can be used in a few different ways, but the most prevalent way is by sharing everything your work. In the software world, this means not just the finished product, but the “source code” of the product, something which private enterprise has traditionally been loathe to do (i.e. Microsoft).

But like you say, you can apply the idea to a number of different areas. Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia, as not only the finished product is shared, but so is the history of its evolution, as well as the discussion surrounding each article.

Part of the reason the Internet is a profound change is because of how much an open source philosophy has not just spread, but succeeded. It is not anti-capitalist, it’s merely more ideological and stringent on what is worthy of capitalization. For software, open source says that the code should be free, and the service is what’s worth charging for.

If you’d like to read up more on Open Source from the software/Internet/copyleft kind of perspective, look up the General Public License (GPL), Richard Stallman, and the Free Software Foundation on Wikipedia or by googling them, and you’ll find a moving history.

By: The New Age, part 3 | Martyholman.com

The New Age, part 3 | Martyholman.com — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:26:19 +0000

[...] A New Age (part 2) [...]

By: Mike Burns

Mike Burns — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:05:28 +0000

open sourcing is every man’s battle? I thought it was porn.

By: david

david — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:05:35 +0000

i think i’m going to bring this up in guy’s bible study tonight.. we’re doing the book.. every man’s battle
good points

By: Marty Holman

Marty Holman — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:03:15 +0000

Thanks for the clarification Ian! I did know that but didn’t explain that very well. In a way, we’ve just open sourced the idea of open source.

By: Ian

Ian — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:52:49 +0000

I think your concept of open source isn’t quite correct. The idea behind open source isn’t so much about collaboration but about freedom and sharing. The idea is that I have some good ideas and the skills to execute them. I do so and rather then horde them for myself, I share not only the finished product with other people, but the means (and freedom) for others to do the same thing or improve upon it. Note that I did the initial project all by myself, and someone who has an idea to improve it may never work with me. But the key to open source is that I grant others the freedom to take what I’ve done and run with it.

Now, the great part of the idea of open source is that it naturally allows a large amount of collaboration. If others can see what I’ve done, then we can work together to make it even better.

Good is good, but better is, well, better.