[TOS] Open/Collaborative development as a focus for the textbook? (Re: First draft of textbook: introductory chapter (foreword?))

[MJ Ray]

Greg DeKoenigsberg <gdk at redhat.com> wrote:
> To wrap this thread up: [...]
> 2. My decision, for now, is to prefer the term "open source" because it 
> is, in my opinion, the simplest term for *this particular purpose*.

OK, but I hope some authors will speak up for inclusive naming.

In any case, would you complete and attribute that closing Richard
Stallman quote, or remove it, please?  The current use seems like
derogatory treatment.

[...]
> 4. MJ, if you want to write a chapter on the importance of terminology and 
> ideology in the world of FLOSS, I will certainly consider it for 
> inclusion.

Terminology is only important so far as it represents the reasons, so
I'd like to write a chapter on developer philosophies, pulling in some
results from things like FLOSSPOLS.  But I have no funding for this and
can't afford to work on it for free at the moment.  Does anyone know
some possible funding sources and/or is it possible to get a firmer
commitment that would let me apply to a few funders that I know?

> 5. Because this book will be CC-BY-SA, anyone will be free to fork it and 
> do whatever they like with it.  But until the book actually *exists*, this 
> right is a theoretical right.  If we want to have this discussion again, 
> let's have it at the end, when we've actually got a book.  It's a 
> search-and-replace operation, isn't it?

Yes, it'll be possible to fork and re-use it, but it's not just a
search-and-replace.  If the book doesn't mention any of the
philosophies which help to explain why we won't hide problems, why we
share bugfixes and why we prefer to release early release often, then
that's a thread which has to be woven through the book to make a
cookbook into a practical manual.  Some FOSS development practices
started from belief, before hard numbers supported them.

Hope that helps,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef)  LMS developer and webmaster at     | software
www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk        |  .... co
IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html |  .... op