Open Sources 2.0

dpilgrim writes "O'Reilly has just released a successor volume to 1999's "Open Sources", entitled "Open Sources 2.0". The table of contents reveals contributions from a number of open source luminaries, including Mozilla's Mitchell Baker, Samba's Jeremy Allison, and Sleepycat's Michael Olson. There's also an essay co-authored by Slashdot's own Jeff Bates. The sample chapter is the introduction, and includes an entertaining riff on the parallels between the open source community and the Burning Man community. This volume is edited by two of the original three editors, Chris DiBona (former Slashdot editor) and Mark Stone, together with Danese Cooper. You might want to compare this with the original "Open Sources", whose entire text can be found online."

Comments

It takes a community...

[fak3r]

This book should be much more relevant now that the 'dot-com' hype has disappated and people can see the fruits of real community supported development. When you see how poorly properitary software companies are run (I'm talking about the ones I('ve) work(ed) for); things like that are not tolerated in OSS. If push comes to shove (I'm looking at you XFree86) a fork may develop giving users a true option that could become superior to it's ancestor. The burning man ref seems a bit off, as that's not people being realy, it's a vacation. OSS is real in that real work gets done by someone everyday (unlike me at my job...)

Let it be Known!

[quadra23]

The Full Description is available. Haha, I really get a kick out of the section titled Read the Source, Luke. Then there's quotes such as, In the web server space, Microsoft's complete denial of the Open Source phenomenon is almost amusing. The Apache web server has, at the time of writing, more than 50% of the web serving market according the Netcraft survey ( http://www.netcraft.com/survey). When you look at advertisements for Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) you see them tout that they own over half the market in web serving--over half the commercial server market, that is. from the Introduction of the original. This is something I'll definitely be reading and adding to my Bookmarks Toolbar Folder!

Burning Man?

[fatboy]

Could they elaborate? I thought "Burning Man" was like the west coast version of Bonnaroo. I don't see how "hippie fests" have anything to do with developing great software. But then again, I don't like hippies.

Re:Burning Man?

[agnosonga]

If you think of burningman as just a big "hippie fest" then I can see why you would be confused by its appearance in the book. But even though it resembles many "hippie fests" (ie the Oregon Country Fair), it has a major unique quality that does correlate to the open source community: its economy.

Unfettered from monetary exchange, however, most denizens of Burning Man gravitate toward a gift economy. Acts of giving range from the mundane to the extravagant: the accordion player who serenades those in the porta-potty line with his renditions of AC/DC; the massage therapist volunteering her services; the water-gun brigade, spraying people down for a moment of cool relief from the midday sun; or the man who brings along a week's supply of dry ice so he can serve cold ice cream every day.

This is really confusing to the capitalists of the USA. Its the same thing that confuses capitalists about open source.

As puzzling as how open source projects organize themselves is why. To the casual outside observer, it appears that open source developers spend enormous amounts of time developing software that, in the end, they are simply going to give away without the prospect of compensation in return.

Also the concept of art-for-the-sake-of-art, which is one of the major themes at burningman, can relate to the concept code-for-the-sake-of-good-code that I associate with open source. Because it (code or art) was made just for fun or for peers (or whatever) but not for commercial benefit, it ends up really good.

For several years [at burningman], there was a project called Solaria. It was a scale model of the solar system, where not only the distances between objects were proportional, but also the size of those objects relative to distance was proportional. Each object was a light source, with the sun represented by a small lamp about the size of a bowling ball. On that scale, Pluto could be reached only by a three-mile bike ride across the playa. Not even the Smithsonian can put on an exhibit of that scale.

While burningman is not an exact analogy of the open source community, I see the reference and I think that it is a great introduction to the book.

and, I have gone long enough, I hope that this helps you understand the inclusion of burningman in the book. for more information: burningman.com
funded art of this year
my burningman pictures

Re:Burning Man?

[Tom Christiansen]

I thought "Burning Man" was like the west coast version of Bonnaroo. I don't see how "hippie fests" have anything to do with developing great software. But then again, I don't like hippies.

To pretend that Burning Man is "like" any one particular thing is like unto converting first a long and intricate novel to a flash-bang Hollywood movie, that movie then to a trailer clip, and finally, that little clip to nothing but a simplistic sound-byte. Just like some data-stream lossily compressed into an inpoverished palimpsest of the original, this final sound-byte, so devoid of depth and detail, cannot help but be misleading, be deceptive--and ultimately, therefore, insulting.

For even a Burner who purports to represent Burning Man as "like" any single thing and then leaves it at that without elaboration is guilty of this sort of reductionist marketing (read: lying) crime. As for a non-Burner who does this, why, this is even worse, nothing but a foreigner speaking out of hearsay and ignorance.

Either go to the Burn, or don't even try to start to describe the experience. You have absolutely no clue.

This hippy thing is really quite curious. To be a "hippy" changed from a positive thing to a negative one, largely depending on one's birth year. Children born near the start of the 60's think of "hippies" as simple and kindly folk who have no trek with DDT, killing, or cruelty, with meaningless rules required by mindless, goose-stepping obediance to their fathers' fathers' fathers' notions of Victorian prudence and propriety, a people who can't always be bothered to shave precisely when and where they're told to.

Yet for those who were born sometime in the late 70's or beyond, a "hippy" seems in contrast to be more apt to conjure notions of unwashed beggars in ragged but colorful clothing who as before can't be bothered to shave when and where they're told to. They have no connection to the Beat Generation, just dirty spongers seeking a life without ties--of all sorts.

Personally, I do find it peculiar how often the latter-borns point out superficial cleanliness as some negative determining factor. What about the people? Perhaps these prudes, so quick to judge their fellow, need a sobering turn at Outward Bound with a backpack and a week in the wilderness--or a bit of time spent in 90+% of the world outside their fairytale bubble of extreme hygiene.

A couple weeks past this last Burn, The Economist had an article largely pooh-poohing the gift culture at Burning Man, much more so than that newspaper has ever decried the open source movement. One thing they got right, though, is seen here:

Normally, behind any hippie event, there are various corporate sorts or hairy entrepreneurs filling their boots with cash. But at Burning Man all buying, selling or advertising was banned. The 3.75-square-mile (six-square-km) site was strictly a commerce-free zone, with two exceptions to prove the rule: first, you had to buy a ticket to get in (which could cost $300 for the whole week and paid for the site, the Portaloos and a few basic amenities); and, second, at the central camp you could buy coffee, tea and ice. Everything else had to be given away. Even bartering is discouraged.

To be freed for even a brief spell from the constant crush of the unending, ubiquitous advertising and consequent grovelling and lying that plague our society really is a refreshing change, a respite from tyranny and deception. No one ever asks what "you do for living"; sometimes, though, they ask you what "you live for doing", which seems more important.

As for the cost, try renting a hotel for 8 days: you'll be spending more than the cost of a Burning Man ticket ($175 - 2x that last year) most anywhere and anywhen in the United States today.

The "gift culture" thing really is shared in common between the open source culture and Burner culture. If you don'

So You Want to Be An Open Source Rockstar...

[BlueRayMan]

Has it been written yet? AFAIK There is no glut of good books about Open Source, esp. for developers. (I don't mean books about specific OSS projects--of which there are plenty.)

Yes, I'm familiar with "Succeeding with Open Source" by Bernard Golden. But if I'm not mistaken that book is all about USING pre-existing OSS as one uses "off-the-shelf" components.

How about some DIY OSS? I'm sure it's "A Long Way To The Top," but if there were some good OSS do's and don'ts (send links if you got 'em!), maybe more good coders would do it...