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GPL is the new BSD in Web 2.0, and why this matters

The Internet turns open-source licensing on its head. Copyleft is neither copyright nor copyleft anymore in the Web world. It's just copy, because distribution of a service over the Internet doesn't count as distribution in the archaic licensing language that plagues most open-source licenses.

It's a problem that the Free Software Foundation chose to ignore, and then beat on Tim O'Reilly to atone for its own failing. Tim, for his part, thinks that the open-source world is missing the boat, which is chugging along unmindful of antiquated things like software licenses when the real value is in data-centric applications whose value lies in network effects (architecture of participation).

I get this point, and he's probably right in the long run. My question for now, however, is: if the value in Web 2.0 is data, why can't Web 2.0 get over its own software fetish?… Read more

Would open source have saved Skype?

Could open source have saved Skype from its ongoing disaster? Andy Oram @ O'Reilly believes so, and I think he's onto something. Open source is not a panacea. But it does offer an alternative way to fix snafus like this that are wreaking havoc on Skpe's reputation, as Larry Dignan notes.

Andy writes:… Read more

Open-source companies to be acquired by proprietary vendors?

I will predict that virtually every open-source company (including Red Hat) will eventually be acquired by a big proprietary software company.

Thus spake Tim O'Reilly in the comments to one of his other posts. Tim believes that open source, at least as defined by open-source licensing, has a short shelf life that will be consumed by Web 2.0 (i.e., Web companies hijacking open-source software to deliver proprietary Web services) or by traditional proprietary software vendors.

In other words, why don't I just give up, sell out, and go home? I guess I would if I thought that Tim were right. He's not, not in this instance.… Read more

Pendulum has swung in the open source debate

Once upon a time, the term "open source" was coined to save the free-software world from itself--or, rather, from the free-software zealots, as you can read on the Open Source Initiative's Web site.

Today, I can't help but feel that the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction, where we're so self-satisfied with the money we're making off open source that we have neglected the essential freedoms that make open-source profit possible.

The wake-up call about the necessary freedoms came from Eben Moglen at last week's O'Reilly Open Source Conference. Some, including software consultant Stephen Walli, don't like the way Eben said it. I wasn't in the room to hear Eben. At any rate, I'm not one for handwringing and am just glad it was said.

Why?… Read more

The ironic rise of the Mac among open source developers

I've been attending the O'Reilly Open Source Conference for years and have watched an interesting thing happen. A rising number of attendees have come with Mac OS X-based laptops. In fact, throughout the tech world, you see a dramatic increase in the number of people toting Macs. Why?

The Mac, after all, is a closed platform, just as Windows is. In fact, arguably, Apple is a more proprietary company than Microsoft has ever thought of being, controlling hardware and software alike. Just look at how Apple has managed its iPhone product: developers were initially shunned, and then they were allowed to crawl onto the device through the browser (and not a community-based browser like Firefox, but rather through its own Safari).

As a die-hard Mac addict and open-source advocate myself, I was thinking this morning about why the two increasingly converge, despite all the ironies and conflicting approaches. Here's my best guess.… Read more

Tim O'Reilly argues that reciprocity for SaaS would have killed GPL, but would it kill the web?

I was disappointed to wake up to this from Tim O'Reilly, commenting on why GPLv3 was right to abandon the attempt to rein in free-riding SaaS companies on open source software:

Web-delivered applications are just too important to too many people for the horse to be taken back to the barn. It would have been a death blow for GPLv3, making it impossible to adopt.

I'm actually not sure where Tim falls on this. When I initially commented on his blog, I read the above to suggest that a) the web is different and b) SaaS companies need not abide the same rules as non-SaaS companies vis-a-vis open source.

Reading his comments again, it feels like he's actually just saying that GPLv3 would have died in the face of opposition from Google et al. had the Free Software Foundation pushed the issue. That's certainly what Eben said at OSBC and I can appreciate the quandary.… Read more

Why people write documentation (Andy Oram)

I'm glad Andy went through the bother of doing this survey on why people write free documentation. It's a topic of constant discussion at Alfresco, and I'm sure at most open source projects and companies. It's a difficult proposition to get outside contributors to any project, and particularly a commercial open source project, but to get contributions to documentation...? Much harder, because it provides far fewer immediate benefits to developers (and no one likes writing documentation at the best of times).

So, why do people contribute their time and expertise toward writing free documentation. What's … Read more

Where 2.0 under way, new geo services aplenty

I'm here at O'Reilly's Where 2.0 conference here in San Jose, which is about to kick off. At last night's Launch Pad event, four new services launched.

Fatdoor made its official alpha launch. Originally slated for a release at last month's Web 2.0 Expo, the service opened its doors for people interested in testing the service on their way to making it publicly available. The service touts itself as being a "neighborhood-based community social network," and a place to find local people or events. We'll try to get a hands-on … Read more

Swivel adds maps to data repertoire

Today, Swivel is adding a new geography view to its data-sharing service. Users will now be able to view data containing city or country information in a variety of different ways, using integrated Google Maps.

Geographic data is represented as a heat map, which will display data as darkened and lightened areas--like you'd see on a weather map. You can also turn your own data set into a one of these maps.

Like other data sets on the service, users will still be able to compare multiple sets of data at the same time, as long as the data … Read more