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A Look Back At 10 Years of OSI
blackbearnh notes that this week marks the 10th anniversary of the Open Source Initiative. He points us to O'Reilly's ONLamp site, where Federico Biancuzzi (who frequently interviews notables in the Open Source community for O'Reilly) has a collection of interviews with some of the founders of the OSI, including Bruce Perens and Eric Raymond. "Eric Raymond: There is a pattern that one sees over and over again in failed political and religious reform movements. A charismatic founder launches the movement, attracts followers, and enjoys significant successes; then he dies or leaves or attempts to name a successor, and the movement disintegrates rapidly. One of the classic, much-studied cases is that of John Humphrey Noyes and the Oneida Community, 1848-1881. It was especially clear in that case that its succession crisis and eventual collapse was due to over-reliance on Noyes's personal leadership. At the time I co-founded OSI in 1998 I judged that FSF would very likely undergo a similar crackup if it lost RMS, and was determined to avoid that if possible for OSI."
Someone I know went for a job interview with (I think) Vodafone. Their open-plan office was set out according to the OSI model -- physical layer people at the end, application people at the other end, and everyone in order in between!
It's not off topic, it's referenced in the summary.
I'm glad that ESR sees at least one of his goals as being to reduce the amount of political crap flying around in the community
After he'd already equated Free Software with moralizing and conducting ideological warfare, you could be forgiven for thinking he was more interested in spreading bullshit that containing it.
yp.
It generally seems to be a point of relaxation in his speech: Richard lays down a pretty heavy political message, and then he gets to the point where he shows that he doesn't take himself so seriously that he can't put on a funny outfit and make some jokes. Not taking yourself too seriously is generally appreciated in a leader.
Bruce Perens.