Letter to the Community on Andover/VA Merger

I've attached below an open letter from Bruce Twickler and Larry Augustin (Andover.Net and VA Linux Systems respective CEOs) on the subject of the merger and what it means. The letter says almost everything, but I just wanted to say that VA employees will still use submit.pl to get their stories posted like everyone else... and I'll continue to reject most of their stories (just like everyone else). The contracts we had written to guarantee that Slashdot remained editorially under our control under Andover.Net continue unchanged under any ownership. And VA is smart: they know not to tamper with Slashdot.

The letter from Larry Augustin and Bruce Twickler:

The Internet is the original free software application. This has been repeated so often we can easily think of it as an empty truism. It's not. It's a rich, vital, and growing truth that still defines the way Linux companies do business today.

Linux flourished because it was born into the Internet world. This was a world of global, instantaneous communication, a world in which a developer community could explode from dozens to hundreds in a matter of weeks, and from hundreds to millions within a few years. That vibrant community made possible the incubator we know now as the open source development model.

But Linux also flourished because the Internet into which it was born was a small enough place for Linus' voice to be heard. The Internet of 1991 had fewer developers. Those developers had little difficulty finding each other.

Today's Internet is a vast place. Whether it will be a vast resource or a vast obstacle depends on our ability as developers to organize. We need a place to bring people together, to enable developers to find one another. But to call it a portal greatly understates the challenge. We're aiming for nothing less than the hub of services that accellerate and empower the next generation of open source development. We need a gathering place to:

• enable open source developers to reach one another
• create the forums where the open source model will evolve
• define and proclaim our values as a community
• drive open source to the cutting edge of future software develoment

Bringing together Andover.net with VA Linux's Open Source Infrastructure Business Unit gives us a great opportunity to empower open source's most important community sites. We are also bringing their story full circle. Themes, Freshmeat, and Slashdot each started as community sites run on an all volunteer basis. We're giving them an opportunity to work together once again. More than that, we're giving them the resources to play an enduring central role. By bring Andover together with VA, we're assuring the future of these important community sites.

This group is a separate business unit, because it will live independently from VA's core systems business. VA has proven this can be done in Linux.com and SourceForge today. Andover too: Slashdot never stopped running articles about SourceForge even while Andover was building Server 51. What matters to the community gets covered, regardless of where it comes from.

In this new structure, the VA sites will plug into the Andover management team, and the whole group will report to Larry Augustin directly.

We're here to serve the open source community. Period. If we ever fail or fall short in that mission, please don't hesitate to remind us. Thanks in advance.

Larry Augustin, CEO, VA Linux Systems (lma@valinux.com)
Bruce Twickler, CEO, Andover.net (bruce@andover.net)

Comments

Editorial

[Hemos]

Folks,
I know a bunch of you are worried about what will happen, and whether this is going to change things.

It will.

We're getting new servers. Seriously, things are going to stay the same - the backend will get some more power, but I'm still going to post Athlon stories, Red Hat stories and whatever else strikes my fancy. You know how to get in contact with us if soemthing seems out of place to you - and I trust that you will do so.

My thoughts..

[drwiii]

As someone who's been reading Slashdot ever since it was "Chips & Dips" (News for Nerds on the stuff worth caring about), I can't say I'm too worried about the whole VA thing. If Malda says that he keeps creative control, then that's just fine with me. I had some doubts about the whole Andover deal (Over-night Open-Source), but at least we got Robin from Andover News and Emmett from Linux Today on board.

For the most part, the Slashdot community is very bright. If they sense that something's up with the stories getting posted here, you can bet they'll either A) criticize the hell out of them, or B) go elsewhere.

I can't help but think that Rob was dragged kicking and screaming into this one, having rejected an earlier takeover offer by VA.

The thing that turns most people off is probably the money. In our unique community, there's more grassroots and community support/acceptance for a site run by a struggling college student and his friends than there is for a site run by a for-profit corporation. People like to side with the little-guy.

Like Rob said, VA is smart. I like to think that the community is smarter. If VA screws this one up, the Natalie Portman, grits, and Don Knotts guys will be the only people left posting here. I just hope VA is smart enough to realize that.

Nice gesture, but...

[Skyshadow]

I'd really hate to come across as a ball-breaker, but this letter really doesn't say anything or make any promises.

For instance: What about the advertising? Will Slashdot and Freshmeat still accept (under reasonable terms) advertising from VA's competitors?

Look, I know a lot of you think that this is a non-issue -- you either use ad-blocking software or ignore them or whatever. The reality is that advertising is still a powerful influence in the buying habits of a vast majority of the population -- again, why are Coke and Pepsi so big when Jolly-Good is less expensive? Ads can be effective, and your business cannot grow well without them.

I bring it up because it's a subtle way that VA could shift things in their favor. Frankly, I'm not worried that VA will start submitting their own articles or influencing the editors -- that would be way too obvious, and we'd see through that in a second. If they are going to influence what we see and hear in any way, it'll have to be something subtle like this.

Ideally, I would like to hear that a non-vested party (who owns no VA stock and who is not directly controlled by anyone save Cmdr. Taco) was put in charge of ad sales. Again, let me say that I'm not accusing VA (or any of the /. of Freshmeat crew) of having this planned, it's just something I could see happening. Ask yourself this, though: If you were VA, why would you want to own Slashdot and Freshmeat so badly?

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Re:Nice gesture, but...

[chrisd]

Of course we will, we'll accept advertisers who are competitors so long as they pay! I mean, the Linux marketplace is so much bigger than just VA, after all.

It would be very un-subtle to do otherwise and would definately cause more problems then provide benefits.

Chris DiBona VA Linux Systems
--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
Pres, SVLUG

How/why Slashdot has changed

[Kurt Gray]

For all you obsessed about alien conspiracies and big business skewing the content of Slashdot all I can say is you haven't been paying attention or you just got here and can not resist the urge to flame. What Slashdot basically is boils down to Rob Malda's personally web site. Rob and his hand-picked team of authors pick the stories that interest them -- maybe they don't interest you but these stories interest them. If these stories have no interest to you then please go read something else. No one is putting a gun to your and making you read this web site.

In short, the reason Slashdot has "changed" is because the authors interests are changing. The world is changing. Times are changing. Holland Michigan was aqcuired by Microsoft/AOL/TimeWarner/VAndover/Viacom... whatever you want to believe.

Is Slashdot slower? Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. We're always working on that. We're Slashdot junkies like you and we are just as many hops away from our servers as you and we are just as unhappy when Slashdot does not load fast so we're always working on making it faster. Maybe if some bozos would stop running bots to post psychotic fantasies about a certain actress the site would perform even better, but we strive to work around that.

In short if you don't trust that Rob and his gang really are controlling this site then you haven't been paying attention. I case you haven't noticed there have many things posted here that upper mamagement would rather see posted but what can they do about it? Not much. If the Slashdot authors think it is newsworthy and/or just plain amusing, then it gets posted despite managments uneasiness about it.

I'm sorry to rant but I can't help but let people know that the mothership here is not determining what gets put on Slashdot other which ads to run. Most of our VPs don't even read Slashdot. I realize most of you out there understand this already but for the few who don't I post my little rant.

Of editorial independence

[Camelot]

Editorial independence went out the window the minute Andover.net bought Slashdot. This is not meant as a flame towards the slashdot people, because I do think they have been doing a good job, and I believe Rob & folks strive to keep their independence (and as defined in their contract, they do have it). But no matter how hard they try, they cannot be as independent as they were before - not because anyone is pressuring them, but because they start seeing things the same way the company does. This doesn't have to be deliberate, but it is bound to happen with companies that have a vision.

I'll start with a few examples - the best is by the CEO of F-Secure (that produces F-Secure SSH, for example), Risto Siilasmaa. At a recent presentation, he talked about how they talk about their vision to their employees (even temporarily hired folks like telephone operators) . If the vision is believable, the people will buy it, and spread it forward (!) and even defend the company. Thus, it spreads like a virus. Is this a bad thing ? Not necessarily.

I, too, realized, that a certain vision has been sold to me. I used to work at Nokia - where the mantra "Nokia values" is highly valued. While I no longer work there, those "values" are the one thing I remember best. Have I been brainwashed ? No. It is simply that when you see these values applied to your workplace, you can see that they work. Regardless of whether those values are true or not, I nowadays speak positively of my former employer, and I am definitely biased.

Another example is, of course, our favorite software company - you know it - Microsoft. I might not like their vision - but they do have one. And you might have noticed that there are Microsoft employees that fiercly defend their employer.

So, we enter Andover.net and VA Linux. The latter is certainly doing brilliant stuff (well, the former doesn't really exist anymore) and certainly has a bright future ahead. I like that, and I am sure Rob, Hemos and folks like it too. But, taken into account what I said above, they already see things the VA Linux way. Knowing what is happening inside the company, some of the criticism that flows around seems very invalid. And they defend VA Linux. A little switch has been flipped in their brains, and it cannot be flipped back.

I do not think Slashdot will become a VA Linux marketing bulletin, but Slashdot is not, and will never be, independent.

overuse of the phrase 'OpenSource'

[TheGratefulNet]

ok - larry - enough is enough. I get this warning on my console when I try to parse your posting:

%phrase-e-overquota: system quota exceeded on use of OpenSource term.

so as penance, you'll have to instead use the phrase:

ecky ecky ecky ecky pitang, zuboing!

instead of OpenSource.

I'm sorry, but it had to be done this way. we'll check back in a month to see if your problem is cured; and if so, your system quota will be restored to its previous value.

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