Aspects of Developing With, and Using, Open Source Software
I guess this is the bit we have heard most about - open source as net-enabled, collaborative, incremental work. Much touted as a new method of working, it is in fact merely an updated version of a time-honoured way in which craftsmen and artisans have dealt with the alienation of their work. In industrial society it was very common for skilled workers to make what were called 'foreigners'. These are exquisitly beautiful items - often models - made with the company's materials, and created illicitly in the company's time. Anyone who has heard Johnny Cash's song 'One Piece at a Time' will know what I am talking about! Programmers have an advantage over the factory workers, though. Our work is intellectual - and because the work mainly takes place 'in our head', and the tools of the trade are relatively cheap, we can exercise our creativity out of work hours. It is this exercise of creativity in collaboration with our peers, using the Internet as a communications medium, that represents the core of open source program development. The very breadth of the Internet ensures that there is enough choice to match programmers with work they find interesting. This is also one of the things that can make it very difficult for new open source projects to get off the ground. They tend to get lost in the background noise of the Internet. |
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