"xyz" <xyz@xyz.net> wrote in message news:<417c794e_4@news1.prserv.net>...
Just to clarify before I respond: I'm not proposing we create a
socio-political model based on open-source software development, I'm
suggesting that OSSD is in fact a socio-political model, with many
noble features and economic advantages, and anyone wanting to promote
those values might consider becoming a part of it, as its importance
to society continues to increase.
My apologies if I was unclear on this point. If you did know what I
meant and are asking how it actually works in practice, I will try to
answer as best I can...
[...][color=blue][color=green]
> > The economic and social importance of useful, available software is
> > only going to increase for the forseeable future, and is of great
> > relevance to developing countries as well as developed. So start
> > today, finish when you die.[/color]
>
> Fine. How shall contributions be measured?[/color]
Broadly speaking, by how useful people find them (and how many people
find them useful).
To be more specific, for any given project, you'll likely find one
person at the very top administering it (because they started it, or
were closely associated with it in the early stages, or were appointed
by an organisation set up to administer it, or by the company that
invented it). They decide over time who is worthwhile to accept
submissions from directly, and those people decide who *they* will
accept submissions from, etc, etc. If you prove yourself repeatedly,
you might be moved up the chain to save time getting your
contributions in.
Once released as part of an official version of the program,
contributions are measured largely by what regular users say and do.
Widely praised, widely used things tend to stay and get built on.
Widely ignored or berated components tend to get improved or removed.
The thing that's important to remember is that open source software is
generally developed by its users, who, besides giving their opinions
have full access to the source-code if they want to create/submit an
improvement that they want for themselves. So there's a fairly natural
relationship between what's most useful and what gets included.
[color=blue]
> Will we be informed of the contributions made by others?[/color]
Most likely, assuming you join the appropriate mailing lists.
[color=blue]
> How about if two people end up writing the same piece of software?
> Will one starve and the other survive?[/color]
Depends on whether they have a job, or other source of income.
[color=blue]
> Who decides? How about if he likes the other programmer better because he
> has two belly buttons instead of one?[/color]
Then it's unlikely people will keep submitting things for his approval
(unless they have two belly buttons). If they are at the top of the
food-chain, it's more than likely that all beneath them will regroup
elsewhere to continue, if they are not at the top, it's likely they'll
be removed from the chain or cut down a few notches.
[color=blue]
> ...and what do we do with those that can play the violin but cannot program
> a computer?[/color]
Every programmer was once a person who couldn't program a computer. To
quote Tyler Durden: you choose your own level of involvement.
[color=blue][color=green]
> > (My personal recommendation to get started: Learn PHP. If you have no
> > knowledge whatsoever of scripting or html, this should take you about
> > 10-15 hours. If you do know the basics of html and scripting, maybe 1
> > or 2. Try here for starters
http://www.w3schools.com/php/).[/color]
>
> ...who gets to program the operating system?[/color]
Whoever produces a component that people find useful. PHP was just a
suggestion for getting started in OSSD if you wanted to but had no
clear intentions for how or in exactly what direction. It's one of the
most widely used and powerful languages around and is relatively easy
to learn. It's also got a certain coolness factor that is hard to
pin-down, probably something to do with its versatility and its
ability to glue together so many different components so easily.
