Christian Science Monitor Putting OSS at the Helm

Jane Walker writes to tell us that the Christian Science Monitor is becoming quite the proponent of open source. The aggressive nature of OSS was a large part of what drew CIO Curtiss Edge into the fold, it seems. From the article: "But beyond the tangibles like open source code it was the community that made a convert of Edge. Behind all the open code, it was the forums and flexibility that were the driving forces he believes breeds better developers than those that toil away with proprietary code. Open source software makes developers more aggressive and more apt to go out into the communities that exist around the software to find solutions to their problems, Edge said, rather than holding on some proprietary help desk line while tech support looks up the answer."

Comments

Praise Jesus!

[Zaphod2016]

Open Source rules.

Can I get an amen?

Re:Praise Jesus!

[Anonymous Coward]

Can I get an amen?

Unfortunately, Amen is closed-source proprietary software. However, you can get an OSS alternative: gAmen or kAmen. Careful, though - might start a holy war.

Support frustration

[WinEveryGame]

"Nothing can be more frustrating than paying someone a pile of money for support and then get someone on line who knows nothing about product,"

To be fair this can happen in open source world as well (well, in the so called "commercial open source world"). But, overall, in general probability of fixing an issue quickly is higher when using open source software.

Re:Support frustration

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

To be fair this can happen in open source world as well (well, in the so called "commercial open source world").

Yes, it can happen with any business that doesn't manage their support organization very well.

But, overall, in general probability of fixing an issue quickly is higher when using open source software.

And that is because OSS opens the support market up to competition. Proprietary code can only be (well) supported by someone with proprietary access - making proprietary code a gynormous barrier to entry for the support market. Free software has no such barrier, thus enabling competition so support organizations have to compete directly on the quality of their produce (the support they provide).

Re:Danger Will Robinson!

[CRCulver]

While the Christian Science Monitor was founded by the Christian Science movement (about as far from Bible-thumping Fundamentalism as you can get), for at least the past four decades it has been a general, highly respectable news source with no religious slant.

Great....

[FooGoo]

Now instead of telling my boss that our issue has been escalated to level 2 support I can say "I won't have an answer until Elm0 in #L1nuxd00dz recovers from his caffine induced tirade about how LISP is more elegant that PERL".

Re:Great....

[isorox]

Now instead of telling my boss that our issue has been escalated to level 2 support I can say "I won't have an answer until Elm0 in #L1nuxd00dz recovers from his caffine induced tirade about how LISP is more elegant that PERL".

This is the problem really. The fact that you'll have the correct answer from IRC before level 1 corporate support has taken your credit card number and given you a log reference is irrellevent. Getting the job done is no longer important.

Re:Splitted Personalities

[darkonc]

Anyway, sharing with others is a Christian virtue, instead of a form of Communist idealism (which is what proprietary software firms told you).

You forgot to mention the old Homestead practice of community Barn Raisings. -- Probably the nicest pre-computing analogy to Open Source.

People read the title of the CSM and turn off

[Biotech9]

when i read the Christian science monitor people glance at the title and knee jerk immediately, 'what the hell are you reading that for?'

Just in case you have not had an encounter with the CSM before, it's not some religious orientated 'intelligent theory' spouting mouth piece of the far right. It's one of the most respected newspapers around, has a league of its own reporters rather than relying on wire services like most other papers, has won many awards for fantastic journalism, often reports on cutting edge science that would make the conservative far right weep, and also often reports on stories that the rest of the press skip over for not being sexy enough.

AND, they're low on cash and have been in the red for some time, how about splashing out on a subscription?

Re:People read the title of the CSM and turn off

[snwod]

Just to compliment your post, here's a link to the http://www.csmonitor.com/aboutus/about_the_monitor .htmlCSM's FAQ page where they explain the name and ideologies. I know the first time I came across the CSM, I too thought they were maybe not my cup of tea (religiously speaking). But during my time as a news-junkie, I have constantly come across well written and informative articles from them. OT: Sorry for the crappy html link...I don't know how to embedd the link within the text of my post. I was trying to use a carrot-a-href-equal-URL-carrot tag, but it wasn't working.

Re:People read the title of the CSM and turn off

[MourningBlade]

The Christian Science Monitor is indeed one of the best newspapers around. They're small (my dad threw away the first few he received because they didn't LOOK like a newspaper), but that's because they don't use the AP wire or Reuters to fill out their newspaper, as the parent noted.

Consistently, the CS Monitor has had definitive articles on subjects. Unfortunately their archive isn't available for free or I'd point to their excellent article on the whole Ten Commandments in the courtroom fiasco in Alabama. While every other newspaper was either talking about the Ten Commandments being removed, playing soundbytes from the judge, or talking about what other reporters were talking about[1], the CS Monitor did their research and printed their story a day later. They talked to the people rallying outside both for and against (and covered the fact that many of these people had zero clue what was going on), covered what the judge was saying and why he was saying it - and when his support for the monument started (here's a hint: election upcoming, he started the whole thing just a few months before).

Their coverage on the last election was the coverage to beat. Managed to avoid the horserace of usual election coverage[2] and talk about the campaign, the people behind the campaign, etc, etc.

In Iraq they were one of the few newspapers not afraid to go outside the green zone and interview real people. Incidentally, for their efforts at finding the truth their reporter was kidnapped and held hostage.

In my opinion the religious convictions of the founder and the church (First Church of Christ, Scientist) that owns the operation (keep in mind that church members do not make up the journalists...they hire those) help keep them well-oriented. For their newspaper "it bleeds, it leads" doesn't happen - they want to discover what is happening in the world and to tell everyone. They believe that the truth is liberating, and they want to find it - whatever it may be. Honestly, they have a lot in common with the Quakers.

The religious article they print is more of a philosophy article, is usually well-written and is treated like the opinion section of another paper. It is there at the request of the founder.

Check out their website at www.csmonitor.com, and read a few articles. The major problem with our reporting these days is that the reporters just report events and he-said she-said. The monitor uses reporters with clue who contribute actual analysis.

Cruising quickly, the article on Escalating Violence in the Gaza Strip is a good one, as is today's story of President Bush's Visit to Iraq.

People are so used to the bible beaters and the kooks. Religion can be a very powerful force for good. I'm glad to see it happen once in a while.

However, to put this all in perspective...the CS Monitor has its shortcomings. Since they don't rely on wire services, if you want to find out about breaking news you can't just read them like you can several other mega-papers. Their articles tend to come out later (it's the flip-side of doing careful research) and are longer - yes, that can be a downside if you're trying to skim. They don't have local, daily delivery in many places, so their stories come even later if you don't read the online site[3].

[1] - In the news when there's no actual content the reporters will often interview each other. It sets up a giant echo chamber. Easiest example? People in flooded New Orleans shooting at rescue helicopters. Turns out it wasn't that common - might not've even happened at all. Hundreds of stories about it, though. Hundreds.

[2] - Elections are often covered as a race. Based on opinion polls candidate A is ahead or behind candidate B. This is done because there is so very, very little news during an election campaign. The same speech

Re:People read the title of the CSM and turn off

[MourningBlade]

Given that this seems to be a common misconception, shouldn't they change the name of the publication?

Their founder requested that Christian Science remain in the paper's name. She felt it was very important that there be a reminder that the paper is dedicated to truth and the discovery of truth. The paper is not a paper of record, it is a journal of discovery of what the world is and what is going on in it. Flowery language, I know - but there is a difference between just printing news and having a mission and moral obligation to print the truth as best you can find it.

The founder thought that keeping Christian Science would serve as that reminder - in a time before women could vote, she made a fortune and had people try to take it away from her by lying about her in court. Years and years after she died the paper has gone on doing what it is. Maybe she got the culture right. Who knows, maybe even the name is important.

Oh, and I might add that the CS Monitor has managed to avoid the "I'm going to beat the truth out of you" school of investigative journalism. This has kept their quality high. Humility has a lot to do with it. Culture matters.

Re:People read the title of the CSM and turn off

[Eivind Eklund]

In addition, this lateness has another effect: we generally believe and base our ideas off the first information we get.

We do in the case of information that has high personal relevance. For information that has low personal relevance, the later message is more important. See

Haugtvedt, C. P., & Wegener, D. T. (1994). Message order effects in persuasion: An attitude strength perspective. Journal of Consumer Research, 21, 205-218.

For an overview of strongly related topics, see "Multiple Routes To Resisting Attitude Change" by Wegner, Petty, Smoak and Fabrigar in Resistance And Persuation (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004, Edited by Eric S. Knowles and Jay A. Linn.)

Eivind.

And God said to Noah...

[Bushido Hacks]

And God Said to Noah "Thou shal build an ARK-ive so that I may have a back up copy of everything that I have created." And so, Noah made back up. He back up two of everything.

When Noah was finished and everything was backed up, GOD INSTALLED LINUX! (*angles signing "HALELUJAH!"*) As God wiped away all the JPG's of Angelina Jolie on his harddrive, God though of a brilliant idea to create a flightless black and white bird that had it's own exclusive land that would be way COOLER that Eden. (Eden was a pain in the butt to maintain anyway. Between that Adam and Eve thing, kicking them out, and the cost of Fertilzer, and letting some Iraqi people rent the place and calling it Mesopotamia). This land would be easier to maintain because everything there would be frozen.

When He was done installing the fifth disc of the Linux distro, completing setup, and running yum to install any other RPMS that were not installed on the distro discs, God said "Let there be a land of ice and snow so that my latest creation may live in harmony far away from all the other things that I have made." And so it was. He called this land "Antartica" and the creatures he created were called "penguins".

Then God reinstalled most of the files he had and told Noah "If anyone ask what happen, say there was a great flood." "But what about the uber-believers oh, Lord! The take everything literally for the they think they need You to be responsible for there lives, draw stregth from, and condem all the people they call 'science nerds'?"

And God said onto Noah "F*** those Biblethumpers! I'm tired! I'm going to go listen to some Zep* and watch the penguins." You'll probably destroy yourselves over dumb crap that is about Me but I don't want to be any part of your problems. Besides, nerds rule. Only a nerd would have the ablity to use AI and bring stuff to life."

This made Noah a little said, so to make him cheer up a bit God then stated "However, in case there is a big emergency, give Me a holler."

(*="On the eighth day, God created Led Zeplin. He grabed a beer, then he rested.")

Re:to clarify:

[NMerriam]

In the amount of time it took you type all of your responses, you could have gone to the CSM web site and seen whether or not they fit your preconception (er, misconception). They run a single column every day in the Op/Ed section that deals in some way with spiritual matters, and that's it. Almost every newspaper in the US runs at the very least a Bible Quote somewhere on the Op/Ed pages, and the majority of daily papers in this country do carry a religious section, even if only in the Sunday edition, so the column in the CSM isn't terribly out of place (and quite frankly, it's usually fairly nonreligious, but nonetheless it's relegated to the Op/Ed pages where biased commentary belongs).

As an athiest, I can assure you the presence of that one column doesn't somehow "taint" the rest of the newspaper. Quite frankly, the CSM is one of the best, if not THE best, newspapers currently published in the United States, in terms of objectivity, comprehensive coverage of vital issues, and reporting of straightforward facts. You will never see a front page story about Angelina Jolie's baby, or any other nonsense that most American "newspapers" cover, but you will find in-depth reporting from corners of the globe everyone else is ignoring. You'll find original coverage that doesn't rely on republishing the same tired wire reports everyone else is cribbing from, and you'll see rather penetrating journalism that should make every other newspaper's Washington bureau filled with syncophants (of both parties) hang their heads in shame.

Neo-cons co-opted terms like Christian & Liber

[gvc]

I read CSM articles from time to time and find them reasonably well balanced.

Christians are not, in general, a bunch of intolerant anti-intellectuals.

Liberals promote tolerance, not big government and immorality.

The neo-cons smear them both.