<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 9:54 AM, Jerald Sheets <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:questy@gmail.com">questy@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Seriously... <div><br></div><div>This conversation needs to die.</div></blockquote></div><br><br>Actually it doesn't. It is directly related to Linux and here's the link:<br><br>Our beloved kernel and overall general software package collection was developed using a philosophy of openness, of transparency. It is not perfect as a process but it does allow for fundamental failure points to be corrected usually before implementation. We, the OpenSource community, quite loudly proclaim the "Many Eyes Theory" to be a crucial principle in the success of our process and also that is the cornerstone of the next generation of development processes.<br>
<br>I firmly believe with as close to a religious conviction as I can get that this principle is valid and will ultimately stand the test of time.<br><br>As has been uncovered in the New York Times article that led off this thread, BP has not been practicing and degree of openness or transparency. It is an easy conjecture that had they been required to be fully open and transparent we would very likely not be having this discussion at all. Someone in the "Many Eyes" group would have caught the problems and raised a red flag. The assumption here is that management at BP would be listening to that peer review process. If they were fully cognizant of the benefits of the process and intelligent enough to put them into practice, then I suspect they would have listened. <br>
<br>So OpenSource principles are beneficial for (almost) all processes. It is, in effect, the cornerstone of our society and particularly our governing process (open debate, elections of project leaders, etc. all sound very much GNU to me). So why are we not able to make the next great leap forward societally and fully embrace the Open Source principles and transform our society from a lordship, power domination by resource control to a meritocracy similar to how our OS is built.<br>
<br>Oh. Because proprietary, feudalism business mentality won't just roll over and die. We will have to continue to develop our process and expand it's base until there is nothing left to feud over.<br><br>Total World Domination.<br>
<br>That's why this conversation mustn't die. As long as there are BP's out there we will keep having this conversation. :-)<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>-- <br>James P. Kinney III<br>Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness <br>
Doing pretty well on all 3 pursuits <br><br>