Sg2009wc:open

From She's Geeky Wiki

Title: 101/201 open source

Session: 6-I Bay Area Jan 2009

Convener:Michelle

Notes Taker:

Attendees:

Notes:

Women who have open source companies, new ideas for new companies, acquainted with, or want to contribute to it

Did a round-robin of what people know of open source -

• Official definition of open source: open source, in comparison to licensed software. In OS, there are a

number of diff. licenses, it's freely distributable, freely usable, for anyone for any purpose, you can see the code. You can redistribute it yourself as long as it has the same license, and soem even with a diff. license. It's modifiable also.

2 forms of open source:

• bsd style, that are much more free. Modify it and make it proprietary.
• The GPL type you can't distribute if you modify-

note from kaliya who was not in the session but inputting notes into wiki GPL licence means that if you distribute the code you must make it freely avaliable you can't sell it.

open source has foundations

companies have the source, and open it up (red hat is an example), and contribute back to the linux code.

second life/lyndon - opening up part of it, not the whole open social comment - aol's AIM also opened up part of it

open social: a standard, not a code base, like a set of API standards

Is it really open to just open up part of it?

Voting system context: if you use open source software for a voter tabulator, can everyoen change it? A misunderstanding of the process, that it's re-buildin the wheel when it's already built.

The business model of open source: should developer's get paid for their work?

It's "so 90s" to work on this and not get paid.

It's very important to contribute to reate authority in your own career and specialty. Conferences taht require open source contribution to even attend.

Is it really work for free? The consulting hours, the time that the develoeprs make little proejcts that then get glommed into the larger open social world.

the ethics/morals of the open source- who gets attention/respect, the prorammers or the companies taht paid their salaries?

buy or write vs. download or write, seeing the pros and cons of these

there has to be an expectation of bugginess and documentation and contributing to the community

not being allowed to be a tester in the university because I was the only girl in the group

Do it for fun- that's the only reason to really do it

You have to check that your company doesn't have some weird proprietary code that prevents you from redistributing it again.

That's what I think about is how much to contribute back- how much do we put back in, and some of it is useful some of it isn't.

- Read the license, it's not ethical it's just up to the terms.

GPL general public license

Definitely dealt with companies dealing with open source code- taking it, and then absorbing it and then it's a "battle with the company"

How do you give bac if you can't recontribute? Tech support, help in the community, until companies start letting it go.

A lot of the Social networks, and stuff like that, it's built on open source, and LAMP stack.

The tension between business priorities and developer karma.

Sarah re: Microsoft not letting open source download- VP level approval to download and use. The binary included open source, including violating the terms of the license, so they re-developed the library.

Digression into definition of binary package...

It's not about changing and using, it's about changing and re-releasing. There's a variety of licenses.

Affaro (sp?) you can't use and re-release it.

Note from Kaliya Afferro lincens requires making source code avaliable for web based applications. Drupal is GPL but because using it on the web is 'not' distribution one does not have to release the code to all who use it on the web.

Wordpress as an example- using ads on the blog, and making a commercial product out of it, the themes, the themes for myspace.

Copyright expectations in themes and photos, on flickr, etc.

Re-orient discussion, what is the women in open source, Linux Chix, women in open source focus, very supportive,

Techniques to breaking into open source projects- find a project that you need & use all te time, part of your daily life, also contributing doesn't have to be about writing code,either. Documentation, user docs, end user docs, beginning documentation, tech support for beginners...

I've downloaded Python and R- statistical package for it- where do you find resources, to find teachers, google tutorials for it, setup IRC channels and ask questions- get answers. Chat rooms going on 24 hours a day- Colliloquy, Perch.

Being a woman in these- like all male-dominated boards, use a gender-neutral handle and you get faster responses. Use a surname and 2 initials.

How to handle the fact that women's comments go unacknowledged/unheard. How to help out the sisters in tech/male environments.

The "sounding tentative vs. aggressive" comments.

Make male allies, meet other men in the community, then release your first name. It's a process, you almost have to pay your dues in the community.