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The "Doctor Who" Model of Open Source
Glyn Moody writes "Open source projects are generally fine when there's a long-term leader like Linus; but what happens when nobody is able or willing to run things for extended periods? Peter Murray-Rust explains how the open chemistry group known as the Blue Obelisk has evolved what he calls the 'Doctor Who Model of Open Source': 'You'll recall that every few years something fatal happens to the Doctor and you think he is going to die and there will never be another series. Then he regenerates. The new Doctor has a different personality, a different philosophy (though always on the side of good). It is never clear how long any Doctor will remain unregenerated or who will come after him. And this is a common theme in the Blue Obelisk.' Could other open source projects learn from this experience as long-term leaders start to move on?"
Doctor Who? We're talking about a contrivance that was used to explain away actors leaving a show. Meanwhile, in reality, open source projects leave a lot of code that may or may not be well-documented. Changing project managers every few years strikes me as rather difficult, although I guess if you can maintain interest in the project throughout, it could still be a success. Still, it seems like a warning sign to me, kind of like when a movie has 5 screenwriters or 5 editors.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
After 12 deaths, you need hyper-advanced aliens from another planet to grant a new regeneration cycle? Does Davros take over? I'll explain later.
Feudalism with a herditary monarchy. Trouble is anybody who works on open source projects doesn't breed, so you'd have succession wars all the time.
No change there, then.
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
with characters such as RBS, Linus, Guido Python, Larry Perl, etc.
Um..... RMS, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall
You mean the model where something is only deemed entertaining because everything else is either soccer or BBC news? And after a decade or so people just stop caring and the the whole things becomes a kind of national joke? That model?
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
For example, that Eccelson chap was a good first pick. When he sharted off to go do other things, Tennant was a good replacement. But now that Tennant is ready to pass the baton, the new pick they have looks like a total tit with his flock of seagulls hair. We might be stuck with a Doctor firmly entrenched in the 80's with all that entails. Simply naff.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
a reborn project is what the open source community already calls "forking".
WT?
-Hackus
the daleks?, cybermen? somebody has to be the badguy in this show...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
... that every two weeks development and research will stop because the friggin' Daleks are back, and the Cybermen have destroyed the lab and upgraded the research team AGAIN? Sounds like a bad idea to me...
Eccelson was the ninth pick...
And if the project lays dormant for a while and comes back in a completely new direction that doesn't even match up with where the project previously was, they'll just make up a "Time War" to explain away the differences.
I dunno, I think there might be something here, but also expand on it:
The Dalek model: One strong personality creates the project, and gets it to a first release.. then the other developers overthrow him, split the project, wage holy war upon the rest of the world (and each other), but occasionally bring back the original founder for their own reasons.. overall the project won't die since it's still popular with the masses even though everyone knows it's evil. (I submit 'Joomla/Mambo' for this model)
The Cybermen Model: Have a basic idea/product, but adapt it to every possible platform known to man even though there's little change between them. (I submit as an example the 'Nuke' CMS)
The "Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart" model: A project led by a Scottish project lead for the sole-purpose of getting tax credits
----- The internet has given everyone the ability to have their voice heard equally as loud.. even if they shouldn't be
So that makes Hans Reiser the 6th Doctor, right?
The Valeyard is a future and presumably final regeneration of The Doctor who turns to EVIL in order to extend his life.
See also Twiki.
I find the "Dread Pirate Roberts" Model to be the most effective model for open source.
Of course, this analogy only goes so far, since Doctor Who (as stated in Season 15, with Tom Baker) only has a total of thirteen regenerations and then death is permanent.
The "Hawkeye Pierce" model of open source is still my favorite.
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
It could work if all your projcts were episodic in nature. If you never had to revisit old code or have more that one person work on a project at a time. Think your favorite fast food place, they change managment constatly but because the problems they face never last more that a shift at a time it works out
They kinda taste like tasty wheat . . . . kinda . . .
I don't mean to pick on you, but I think you are being overly picky. He meant the first pick of the modern Dr. Who.
The Master Model: Ego-maniacal evil super-geek genius builds a kind of cool but scarily 'wrong' empire with no moral center, which woos the sheeple into obedience and generally locks down the whole of creation, apparently because lots of people being free and happy is a bad thing. I'm sure there's at least one world-spanning all-mighty software company out there which follows this model, but it is better not to utter its name aloud. . .
As for the Cyberman Model. . . A design ethic which envisions Smooth, Sleek, Uniform technology with the mission-statement of dumbing down and alleviating humanity of having to think about anything difficult through the use of simple but elegant ear pods? Whoever can pull off con jobs of that size and scope must also be an evil genius super-geek, though probably one who is somewhat easier to sympathize with. After all, he just wants to remove suffering and complexity from the human equation.
Open Source is very Doctor Who. Cobbled together from shared resources by a rag-tag team of unpaid geniuses who seem to derive altogether too much enjoyment from life while spreading the fruits of their labors far and wide.
The Doctor is Dead, Long Live the Doctor!
-FL
Does this mean open source projects will have to start worrying about the Daleks? EX - TER - MIN - ATE!
So does this mean the other Doctor born out of the original's severed hand last season would represent a fork? Which I guess would make Rose a developer who defects. . .
I suppose this would make Sally Sparrow as the program feature everyone using once during the beta testing, but left out of the final RTM version.
Key members of the project being replaced after a certain amount of time would be more aptly named the Menudo Model Of Open Source.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menudo_(band)
As long as were drawing models from science fiction, may I suggest a "Last Starfighter" system of open source? We scatter special arcade games all across the world. Kid's think they are playing a simple game, when in reality they are training to become project managers of the future in the war against closed source and proprietary software. Also, Richard Stallman gets a spaceship.
Thanks for pointing out that using such a fucking horrible idea in your TV show is a horrible fucking idea for your OSS project as well.
I absolutely can not fucking stand the change of the Doctor. I understand the plot device, I understand that it makes it easy to replace the staring role if theres a problem, and I still think it is the most retarded plot device in the history of man, well short of that giant space worm in StarWars.
Just like the TV show, this sort of thing isn't a GOOD IDEA, its a great backup plan, but is fucking retarded if you plan on doing it on a regular basis, intentionally or otherwise. Bringing in new blood and ideas is fine, new leadership every few years is a good way to get no where as they all step in and prevent the work from the last guy from being completed because this new guy has an entirely different view of the world.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
At least big enough project could vote for new leaders. And those who vote are those who most contributed to the project. Could it work?
You mean Eccelston wasn't even considered for the part back in 1963 (when the first series started) when he was -1 years old (born in 1964)?
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I thought his first regeneration was forced upon him by the Time Lords. Something along the lines that he was long overdue.
I found it intriguing that the story got tagged with both timeywimey and dontblink. That was my favourite episode out of the new seasons.
Any way, about changing leaders in a project, it's not like they would just pick a random hacker off the street. Presumably, someone working on the project, who already knew the project well enough to lead it, would step up. This is one of the strengths of community development. People can stay in a project long enough to 'scratch their itch', and then exit gracefully without felling like the project is going to fall over and sink into the swamp.
based on my Slashdot ID.
Classic
LOL
Best nutter^H^H^H^H Doctor evar !
Indeed, as a Zeppelin fan myself, I've sometimes wondered why they didn't soldier on with a replacement member as some other bands have. (AC/DC and Bon Scott/Brian Johnson was the first thing that came to mind; there are many other examples...even so, I'd say the sample size of "known" bands is too small to make any conclusive statements about which band role was associated with which effect. And of course, I'm not goign cast aspersions on such deeply personal decisions.
Yeah, _In Through the Out Door_ production was a mess, likely symptomatic of developing problems (in short: Plant and Jones in the studio, Page and Bonham out partying, their parts added in later)
In addition to the drug problems, the personal tragedies in Plant's life (car crash in 1975, death of Karac Plant in 1977) were certainly part of the breakdown forces.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
They can't find the first episode of Dr Who or many of the early versions have been lost. Is this the model they we want to bring to Open Source or it is already here.
Because "Lotuslands" just doesn't have the same ring to it as "Torchwood".
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Firstly how can you be overly picky on Slashdot? Secondly the modern Dr Who is a continuation of the "old" Dr Who not a reimagining like say Battlestar Galactica.
As long as they both use the same programming languages, one science researcher can pick up a colleague's software project relatively seamlessly because they are by assumption studying the same reality (string theorists excepted, of course, but even they have a 1 in 11 chance). The nature of the physical world they're trying to study imposes some "agreement" on developers in science to a greater degree than elsewhere, much like a Sci-Fi program with at least one season of back story, or a spy story with several novels already made into movies. Outside of science, the only externally imposed structure would be "the profit motive" or "the hobby motive" neither of which necessarily have any mitigating effect on gratuitous, counterproductive acts of personal ambition because only in science is reality necessarily the ultimate arbiter of every dispute. And even then, a lot depends on the quality of scientists one's assigned to work with.
"I can't imagine how things could get any worse!" (some guy) "That could just be failure of imaginatioÂn on your p