GitHub Urges Companies To Participate In 'Open Source Fridays' (opensourcefriday.com)

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GitHub Urges Companies To Participate In 'Open Source Fridays' (opensourcefriday.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday July 1, 2017 @08:54AM from the TGIOS dept.

An anonymous reader quotes VentureBeat: GitHub wants to help more people become open source contributors with a new initiative called Open Source Friday. As the name implies, the program encourages companies to set aside time at the end of the week for their employees to work on open source projects. It's designed to bolster the ranks of open source contributors at a time when many businesses rely on freely available projects for mission-critical applications. Open Source Friday isn't just about getting businesses to offer their employees' time as a form of charity, it's also a way to improve key business infrastructure, according to Mike McQuaid, a senior software engineer at GitHub...

McQuaid hopes that carving out employees' time on Fridays could help provide additional structure and incentive to participate in the ecosystem... Users don't need to be engineers in order to take part, either. While code contribution is important to the success of a project, creating and maintaining documentation is also key.
OpenSourceFriday.com includes tips for interested contributors, as well as a page suggesting to employers that they could see benefits like developers learning to code faster, better, and more transparently.

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I will gladly open source you Tuesday by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 09:00 · Score: 0

In exchange for a Hamburger today.
1. Re:I will gladly open source you Tuesday by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:15 · Score: 0
  
  I prefer No Pants Friday.
Not really new by Aighearach · 2017-07-01 09:12 · Score: 3, Funny

In the old days we did Microsoft Free Fridays, so there is at least some tradition.
1. Re:Not really new by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 14:56 · Score: 0
  
  Our company is Microsoft-free every day of the week.
2. Re:Not really new by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-02 01:23 · Score: 0
  
  At my job in sicilicon vally we do amazon Fridays we all click on each other amazon affiliate link we generate more revenue stream.
  -cremier
We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 09:22 · Score: 3, Informative

employees that were pretty damn good, but they fired them because they are white males. I will never trust GitHub again since they're getting rid of some of their best employees.
1. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 09:24 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  As I understand it, they only fired employees that demanded vacation time that they had earned. As someone that I'm over twenty years that has never taken a vacation day off, they are lazy. You want to get rid of lazy people.
2. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 09:27 · Score: 0
  
  I haven't had an entire week off since 1986. If those employees unfairly demanded time off, which screws their coworkers, then they were correct in firing them. You don't want lazy people on your team. I've worked Seattle Hundreds for over twenty years, and losing anyone for more than a day screws the entire team. Those people are selfish for demanding time off.
3. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:01 · Score: 0
  
  Any employee owed vacation time per their legally binding contract who does not take every last hour of it is a fool leaving money on the table.
4. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:04 · Score: 0
  
  And they allowed Asians vacation time while not allowing Americans anytime off like Microsoft does. No wonder they quit.
5. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:12 · Score: 0
  
  Due to white privilege they didn't allow any whites time off. That is fair.
6. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:15 · Score: 0
  
  Here in Washington state, our laws don't require a single penny of earned vacation time to be paid out so of companies take advantage of that.
7. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:24 · Score: 0
  
  Agreed. White people ar my company aren't allowed time off.
8. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:25 · Score: 0
  
  Not true on many states. Washington state doesn't require payouts for vacation time so where I work, the Americans aren't allowed any time off since it saves the company money.
9. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:42 · Score: 0
  
  CA requires vacation time to be paid out. WA doesn't. That is why the Seattle area is booming.
10. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:45 · Score: 0
  
  This. That is why we've expanded our Seattle office. They're used to not being allowed time off.
11. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:51 · Score: 0
  
  That would be white people. So many of their kind demand the vacation time they earned even if it hurts their coworkers.
12. Re:We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:56 · Score: 0
  
  We hired someone that worked there that got fired for demanding vacation time, and he is pretty damn good. I thought he would be terrible since he is so selfish. My company hasn't allowed more than a long weekend for anyone except our CEO for the seven years since we were founded. I thought since he got a four day weekend that he was lazy, but he isn't so maybe I have to chance my opinion of people that demand to take vacation time that they've earned. I've never had a week-long vacation my entire life so I assume their kind just hated their coworkers and were just lazy.
13. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:59 · Score: 1
  
  In the Seattle area, it's very common to not allow vacation time since the state doesn't require companies to pay out unused vacation time. Washington state encourages companies to not allow vacation time. I haven't taken more than a long weekend since I started at MSFT in 1994.
14. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:59 · Score: 0
  
  I hope that's sarcasm.
15. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:04 · Score: 0
  
  That is why youwill be a burnout. So you have zero longevity. Your useless already and need to be replaced immediately.
16. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:04 · Score: 0
  
  Demanding vacation time when your coworkers aren't getting it is just damn selfish.
17. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:08 · Score: 0
  
  Women at GitHub get a lot of time off, but the males don't. That is why I quit. I worked there from 2010 until late 2015, and I wasn't allowed a single day off. I had coworkers that too more than 90 days off on a single year since they had babies. That inequality isn't right.
18. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:10 · Score: 0
  
  That's the same in every company I've worked for in the Seattle area. Yes, their plane tickets are expensive and require a lot of travel time, but just since I'm white why can't I take a day off? I have never had a vacation my entire adult life.
19. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:15 · Score: 1
  
  In the Seattle area, it's very common to not allow vacation time since the state doesn't require companies to pay out unused vacation time.
  Blame Washington state instead of your employer. My wife is a CPA and worked at seven start-ups in the Seattle area including Valve, and they never allowed vacation time since it hurt the company since if they didn't allow employees they weren't required by the state to pay it out. It was her financial responsibility to recommend against allowing vacation time. The last start-up she worked for fired employees for asking for vacation time, and Washington state allowed them to pay nothing for their accrued vacation time. It is this state's laws that are screwing us.
20. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:25 · Score: 0
  
  I am not sure where you are in Microsoft, but please get the fuck out.
21. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:26 · Score: 0
  
  ...demanded vacation time that they had earned...
  That is pretty common. Too many states, like here in Seattle, don't require earned vacation time to be paid out, so it is cheaper to fire people than keep them. That isn't the case in CA.
  I've accumulated thirty weeks of vacation over my last ten year here, and I asked for a day off for my mother's funeral, but that was denied. We have a 5.5 week accrual limit, and I just did the math so I accrued over thirty weeks of vacation time since I was hired and lost over 24 weeks.
22. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:36 · Score: 0
  
  I've accumulated thirty weeks of vacation over my last ten year here
  That isn't that uncommon to earn three weeks of vacation per year. We provide four weeks of vacation per year with an accrual max of two weeks per year with an absolute limit of four weeks. That means if I can't fight to get time off by July 1, I lose time off. Since we're in the Seattle area and can't find competent employees, we can never take time off. I've worked at my current employer for twenty-one years so that means I've lost 84 weeks of vacation time since I started here. I know what I make per week, and that means I lost $242k total. It sucks that Washington allows vacation time to not be paid out and allows vacation accrual maximums.
23. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:39 · Score: 0
  
  Nearly everyone on this state has lost vacation time. That is why we are so successful. I know I have never been allowed a single day off my entire adult life.
24. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:42 · Score: 0
  
  That is why we're so successful compared to California that is just dying.
25. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:44 · Score: 0
  
  That is why people on Seattle aren't allowed to take vacations.
26. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:56 · Score: 0
  
  As someone that has worked for Microsoft for twenty-three years and hasn't burnout yet, you are wrong. It just sucks that Asians are allowed time off while whites can't even get a long weekend off.
27. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:58 · Score: 0
  
  Wrong. From what I've seen since I graduated from Stanford in 1992, it is only Indians that get time off. I have never taken a vacation day or sick day off my entire life.
28. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 12:21 · Score: 0
  
  Demanding vacation time when your coworkers aren't getting it is just damn selfish.
  That is what corporations want us to think. I moved to the Seattle area in 1991 to work for Microsoft then left in 1996 after I wasn't allowed to take vacation time off. Since then, none of the start-ups I worked for allowed time off except for Indians that flew home. Yes, I understand that their flights home are expensive and take a lot of time there and back, but Americans should be allowed time off too. After working just over two decades of Seattle Hundreds, I'll never meet someone. Haven't had a single date since 1987. This sucks. I want to have children, but being 48 years-old means that is nearly an impossible task.
29. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 12:43 · Score: 0
  
  We fired all of our white males, and now we can't get a damn thing fixed. I think that was a mistake.
30. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 12:59 · Score: 0
  
  Hire some Pakis. They're not useless like Indians.
31. Re: We hired two of their former... by 110010001000 · 2017-07-01 13:02 · Score: 1
  
  Who knew the "Seattle guy" was racist as well as crazy? Let me guess: you only get dial up in Seattle too?
32. Re: We hired two of their former... by 110010001000 · 2017-07-01 13:03 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah but you only have dialup Internet at home. So why do you need a day off?
33. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 13:34 · Score: 0
  
  Wrong. In the US, most states don't require vacation time to be paid out. Seattle in Washington certainly doesn't.
34. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 13:37 · Score: 0
  
  This. No one should unfairly get time off when others aren't.
35. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 13:39 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Wow, fuck you. A mental break is needed. If one person leaving for two weeks screws everyone, it's because the employer isn't hiring enough people. You're a pathetic pawn.
36. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 14:06 · Score: 0
  
  Since I graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1993 and took my first job in July of that year, I haven't had more than a long weekend off. I know Washington State provides financial incentives for companies not allow us to have time off since they don't require pay-outs of vacation time, but I'm getting damn tired of this after 24 years. I'm about ready to damn quit Microsoft.
37. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 19:39 · Score: 0
  
  If you are white it's like you already have time off every day, so why should your employer give you more?
  (I can see giving an exception for a transgendered or gay white person though)
38. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-02 02:09 · Score: 0
  
  Then why is there even vacation time in the contract?
  If I signed a piece of paper and it says I'm owed some form of compensation, I will take it. Hire more people if you doknt have enough to cover one person leaving for a week.
  Holy fuck what would happen if someone just quit? Your business grinds to a halt for a month while you interview?
  The world is full of hilariously inept management.
39. Re: We hired two of their former... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-02 13:32 · Score: 0
  
  If you're not just trolling, you need to grow a spine. You don't ask for time off for your mother's funeral, you inform that you will be taking time off.
Most companies will never do this.. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 09:29 · Score: 0

Especially those that exploit OSS and never contribute or support it.
1. Re:Most companies will never do this.. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 09:44 · Score: 1
  
  Open source is a source of slave labor.
2. Re:Most companies will never do this.. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 11:54 · Score: 0
  
  Open source is a source of programmers doing what they love.
3. Re: Most companies will never do this.. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 19:41 · Score: 0
  
  And being slave labor is what they love.
SJW angle by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 09:34 · Score: 1

This request unfairly makes Friday more privileged than other less-advantaged week days. Therefore we should boycott all OSS projects until they agree to open source every day of the week... let's be MTWTF-inclusive, people!
1. Re:SJW angle by 110010001000 · 2017-07-01 13:06 · Score: 1
  
  In 2017 Friday can be any day of the week it decides to be!
Please. by 0100010001010011 · 2017-07-01 09:54 · Score: 1

In a lot of bigger old companies OpenSource is a forbidden word. Working with AUTOSAR and ISO26262 at separate companies it's sad how many companies are reinventing the wheel on their own because: "Our competitors might steal our work." Our legal team forbid us from sending in bug reports to something as popular as Numpy because: "The information could reveal _____ proprietary information." Despite the fact that where it was found is such a niche of a niche of a part of the programming industry that I could hand out our source code and there may be 1000 people at 10 different companies that even knew what it did.
I'd love to see what VW, BMW, Benz, Caterpillar, Cummins, Ford, and Toyota are doing for their on-highway software certifications. Maybe provide some feedback. I'd like to share with them what I use, maybe they can improve it and save some time doing the same thing.
Go through the Fortune 500 and see how many companies have an active GitHub repository. Everyone on slashdot did a doubletake when Walmart opensourced its cloud ops. It seemed to be a shock that Walmart got as big and efficient as they did without some technology pulling the strings.
NXP just released a $35 development board that is hampered by terrible software and outdated business practices. Despite being "free" you need a license key that multiple people have trouble with. All of the Matlab and Simulink code they released is protected. However for the first time, ever, the GCC source code for e200 core PPC chips with VLE extensions has been released for free. Previously you had to have a WindRiver or GreenHills.
Who knows what random product or software people could come up with if they were allowed to work with peers doing the same thing. Even if it was for a sworn corporate mortal enemy.
1. Re:Please. by 110010001000 · 2017-07-01 13:13 · Score: 1
  
  Actually you would be surprised at all the big companies that take open source, but never give back. Some companies think that their software is a "secret sauce" that only they are able to create. Of course, ridiculous. Customers don't pay for source code. They pay for solutions. There is a huge gap between source code and a solution.
2. Re:Please. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 13:19 · Score: 0
  
  Actually you would be surprised at all the big companies that take open source, but never give back.
  Unless they are legally obligated to "give back" why should they? Write it into the license or shup up and stop acting passive aggressive because people are taking something that was given away for free.
3. Re:Please. by 0100010001010011 · 2017-07-01 13:47 · Score: 1
  
  Which is why I BSD everything I do/can write. I still have to eat and if you want a custom specialized version I'll write it for you for $$/hr, it's all yours. Turns out it's good business.
  Turns out that a lot of companies do end up rolling back. Look at every corporation and commit that touches FreeBSD's code base. How much has Apple contributed to CUPS, LLVM, ZeroConf, etc? Even Microsoft has joined the bandwagon as of late.
  No, it's not the Star Trek Unicorns Communist GPLv3 that some people claim is the One True open source, but it puts food on my table and puts the food on the tables of a lot of developers.
Has the OSS community become less toxic? by JohnFen · 2017-07-01 09:58 · Score: 1

I work on my own OSS projects, but I stopped contributing to other groups projects years ago. The percentage of awful people in the community is small, but they are extremely vocal and inescapable. It's not worth the aggravation to take part in that nonsense.
1. Re:Has the OSS community become less toxic? by Dutch+Gun · 2017-07-01 13:01 · Score: 1
  
  I released my first open source project a while ago. So far, not much interest other than me. On the plus side, it means my project's "community" is extremely harmonious.
  
  --
  Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
2. Re:Has the OSS community become less toxic? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 13:46 · Score: 0
  
  I work on my own OSS projects, but I stopped contributing to other groups projects years ago. The percentage of awful people in the community is small, but they are extremely vocal and inescapable. It's not worth the aggravation to take part in that nonsense.
  Github bans people for standing in the way of the toxic people. A couple of gitlab repos have cropped up as alternatives but none of them is very popular.
3. Re:Has the OSS community become less toxic? by cheesybagel · 2017-07-01 14:28 · Score: 1
  
  Just ignore them. That's what I do. Now... where is that killfile.
So it's not dead by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:13 · Score: 0

SJWs didn't destroy it completely
Why only target software developers? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 10:56 · Score: 0

It seems these companies should encourage other people to also contribute their skills and time so that the companies can get free stuff. We could have 'shelf stocker Thursdays' or 'Janitor Wednesdays' or 'HR Tuesdays' where they get people to come in and work for free cleaning their bathrooms, stocking their retail shelves, or sorting through Resume's.
1. Re:Why only target software developers? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 13:10 · Score: 0
  
  Exactly. You never hear about "groceries should be free" or "televisions should be free", but these hippie bums somehow think they're entitled to software being given away for free.
2. Re: Why only target software developers? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-01 19:55 · Score: 0
  
  Every TV produced has a cost associated with making it. You can't duplicate it for free. Software can be duplicated for no cost.
  So if a company gives away it software to people who were not going to pay for bit in the first place, it hasn't lost a single penny.
  With the free availability of so many Linux distros, you will never convince me to pay money for the privelege of using Windows. Since Microsoft would never have made any money from me, they aren't losing any money with I use a "pirated" version of Windows.
3. Re: Why only target software developers? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-02 03:55 · Score: 0
  
  Every TV produced has a cost associated with making it.
  
  So does software. Or do you think it just pops into existence?
  
  So if a company gives away it software to people who were not going to pay for bit in the first place, it hasn't lost a single penny.
  Sure it has. How do you expect them to pay their employees with no revenue? And, no, "charging for support" is not a business model.
4. Re: Why only target software developers? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-02 04:40 · Score: 0
  
  What I said was there is no cost to duplicating software. Once you have a single tv, you can't make a second one at no cost. But that isn't the case with software.
  You are wrong about them losing money. Explain how they lose money from me not paying for their software.
  If I had to pay to use it I would not buy it and just use Linux instead. Thus if I use it and don't pay for it they aren't out any money.
Free Friday ... by angel'o'sphere · 2017-07-01 11:50 · Score: 1

In small companies people _work_ on friday.
In big companies, software developers usually have free, or half a day free.
And honestly, there are two kinds of open source projects: those that are relatively easy from a functionality point of few, but the code is utter mess (like lucine) and those that are far beyond of the capabilities of a random developer.
I for my part grant them the free day.
OS should be developed by enthusiasts, not by 'force'.

--
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
What about observant Jews? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-07-03 04:15 · Score: 0

Observant Jews go home early for the Sabbath (which starts on Friday at sunset), is their contribution deemed not as worthy for Open Source as other people?
Or is there an implication here that Jews don't give anything away for free?
Why try to exclude Jewish programmers from contributing as much as everyone else?