Software Commons vs. Product(standardsandfreedom.net)

http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2015/05/25/software-commons-vs-product/

1 comments

chtfn11 anni fa

I find this post makes a lot of sense in how it explains why it always felt natural to define the projects I get involved in as "projects": they are meant to always evolve, more living entities than frozen products. I feel this applies to other online communities too, like open databases: Wikimedia projects, OpenStreetMap, MusicBrainz... each of them more or less tightly linked to software development anyway. It is relevant to the difficulty of explaining what a project is to newcomers, and the issue with trying to put two different things at the same level. Take Google Maps and OpenStreetMap (as opposed to "Google Maps VS OpenStreetMap"): because of their nature, they are two different things that can be compared but should not be seen as two competing "products". Promoting OSM as "an alternative to GM" is definitely not the way to go – in fact, it is quite a detrimental one.