Re: Talk for OSiM Asia

["Andrew Savory" <me andrewsavory com>]

Hi,

2008/11/7 Philip Van Hoof <pvanhoof gnome org>:
>> On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 2:29 AM, Andrew Savory <me andrewsavory com>:
>> 2008/11/6 Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org>:
>> > How about this?
>
>> > GNOME Mobile: Open source enabling collaboration and competition
>
>
>> If I were pedantic ... I'd suggest "Open Source enabling collaboration
>> and innovation". I see OS as a good way to reduce competition (in
>> favour of "co-opetition"), rather than enabling competion.
>
> Having worked a lot in both scenes, I actually disagree that in
> opensource you see a lot more co-opetition than at commercial places.
>
> We, opensource folks, are very good at convincing ourselves that we are
> so much better at collaboration because have this imaginary enormous
> levels of non-competing c-opetition or 'cooperation by sharing'.

Actually, no: I think we're better at collaboration because we're used
to healthy discussion in an open public community where we are forced
to defend our ideas and fight for what we think is right - because we
know the cost of forking, and that evolution is almost always better
than revolution.

> The reality is that we are among the most competitive individuals that
> you'll find in technology.

I didn't say we weren't competitive, I was trying to point out that
with open source code there's a greater opportunity to collaborate and
innovate rather than re-invent wheels. When the opposition is
closed-source and there's no opportunity for discussion based on a
mutual understanding of code, *then* competition is a prerequisite for
advancement.

> In the hypothetical unrealistic impossible case that somebody would
> eliminate all competition within the opensource communities, all of
> them, or even just ours, the GNOME one, I assure you all development
> would abruptly and immediately stop completely.

I suspect that's a rather romantic view of the world too, I'm afraid.
Development doesn't depend on just competition: I'd suggest also
laziness, impatience and hubris
(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/larrywall141510.html) for
a start.

Anyway, this is rather off-topic by now, my apologies.


Andrew.
--
asavory apache org / contact andrewsavory com
http://www.andrewsavory.com/