1
edit
Changes
m
Time & again The final core essence of Open Source is that of opportunity. Open Source software and development is all about participating in the open source community. As awareness of open source software grows, and as open source usage becomes a more common part of everyday software development, more and more individuals and organizations wonder how they can get involved with the open source community. Participating in the open source community, to me, is to provide feedback and bug fixes to open source projects. In many cases, these thanks are the only payment they receive for their efforts. If you discover and/or fix a bug in the product, you can benefit the entire community by sharing your discovery or patch with the product developers. These opportunities enhance intellectual growth and provide information and knowledge beneficial towards everyone who is involved in the community. The Open Source world is an open community and the fact that anyone can assist and contribute is a fascinating aspect. Understanding the issues and opportunities inherent in open source is the first step in using it's OS effectively to deliver maximum value towards one’s project and community. == Conclusion ==In conclusion, I was pleased with the presentations that I viewed at FSOSS 2008. Having been the fist symposium I have ever attended, I selected presentations that I hope would keep me interested. Focusing on Track A and Track B, I visited a multitude of interesting discussions and topics ranging from Copyright Bill C-61 to Mozilla Security to developing C# with Mono. My personal view on open source has lead improved post FSOSS 2008 because I discovered just how much of a dependency successful open source projects rely on the community through feedback and contributions. It is in essence, the fuel that drives the vehicle and without it, the vehicle is moving nowhere. I had a great time and look forward to each new plateau more in tech & thinking" -the future.
→FSOSS 2008 Report (DPS909)
== Comparison ==
In light of the points made by both Shane and James, there are very similar patterns that may be observed through the details of both presentations and both stories presented.
Both presentations focused on the aspect of how the core components of their represented software products, would be failures if global contributions ceased to arise.
The success of Drupal and Komodo Edit are due in part to the fact that many volunteers contribute in many different ways.
The observable pattern is that community and volunteer contributions are essential towards the success of an Open Source project.
Both Shane and James personal views on Open Source and FSOSS in general are similar in that they both agreed that Open Source is about respecting user’s freedom. People work on Open Source software because, they believe in the moral/social reasons or the practical advantages to an open development model.
== My Personal Views on Open Source ==
'''Innovation''':
Open Source software has many great characteristics: it’s inexpensive, shared, and creates alternatives to the vast world of proprietary software. Open Source software is also innovative, far more innovative than any commercial software company.
An area shrouded with complete innovation is that of Sun Microsystems Java. As one may recall, Sun built the entire Java Community Process and Community Source Model to provide some of the advantages of Open Source without what Sun considered as the disadvantage – that there wasn’t a strong property model. If one were to look at Java’s projects today, one would see a list of innovative Open Source projects like Hibernate and Struts.
One would also see innovation in the area of web browsers. Mozilla Firefox created and popularized many of the features that perhaps other companies, even Microsoft may duplicate in their next release. One mustn’t forget that Apache still dominates the internet server market.
As well, one might recall how Linux leads operating system development, no other OS runs on watches and supercomputers.
One might reminisce about how it was not feasible to create the web without Open Source, even though proprietary software producers attempted (Ted Nelson & Xanadu).
Open Source is taking over the creative lead in a lot of technologies. The purpose of intellectual property law is to promote innovation, yet, tight control is the only model it knows. I believe that since there now exists another way to innovate, intellectual property law will require change.
'''Opportunity''':