Re: Hosting Open Source RPG Projects WAS: RPG from IBM's Perspective

Eric (and Vern),

I had pushed F/OSS as part of the YiPS mission in my responsibilities as the CaN liaison in Common. The stars aligned nicely over a year ago or so when Justen Porter and Brian May connected up with Steve Will and several other IBM folks to get the YiPs what they needed to start their site. Brian has been doing lots of great work on the site which IBM sponsors on a box that is part of Academic Initiative. Whether that box could be used to host other Open Source projects and free downloads would be subject to whatever the usage terms of the box are (if any).

But we would still have some other hurdles to overcome and one of them would be "consolidation" and capturing some mind share of folks so that when they think of F/OSS and RPG they think of ???? That is the challenge IMHO.

Pete

DeLong, Eric wrote:

Perhaps YIPs could expand to host F/OSS community projects. Or IBM itself could host. Perhaps the RPG Café.

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Pete Helgren
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 5:27 PM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
Subject: Re: Hosting Open Source RPG Projects WAS: RPG from IBM's Perspective

Hans,

Agreed. I'll admit I put the site together early on in my quest for open source RPG projects. Seems to me the Linux/Unix community provides a vibrant core for F/OSS with the Windows folks being numerous enough, the the porting not so difficult, that they began to participate as well. Us RPG types? Well, many in the community really don't get it. The few who do begin to latch on to stuff that can *run* on the i, usually in PASE, and go from there. There are probably a few dozen folks on the list who really understand the value of F/OSS and make it part of their mission to promote it.

I'd still love to get a "central" place established. Kind of a Sourceforge for RPG'ers but, Sourceforge *could* be used that way in any case so there really isn't a strong impetus to get there. However, I think that RPG F/OSS folks are a bit different from the general F/OSS populace so they *could* use a place to "roost". It would benefit everyone.

Notice that there were 3 or 4 offers to host in different domains but that only perpetuates the divisions, rather than uniting the F/OSS RPG folks. I am not sure that there IS a way to pulls us all together when it comes to F/OSS but I know there are plenty of benefits that could move the IBM i more into the mainstream, if we could get a few "must have" projects going.

Pete


Hans Boldt wrote:

Pete: I've been a big advocate for open source software. I run F/OSS on
my home computer, and I've helped others install it on their machines.

I've seen initiatives like yours come and go. It would appear that the
iSeries community lacks both the critical mass and the understanding
necessary for successful F/OSS projects to take root.

The other factor is that once someone recognizes the value of F/OSS,
they will naturally gravitate to the Unix/Linux community where F/OSS
really is a fact of life. The best F/OSS projects seem to begin there,
and get ported elsewhere.

Cheers! Hans

Pete Helgren wrote:

"I would like to contribute to the "Save IBM's Development Funds"
community project - is there anybody out there who is willing to host my
XML generation and XML templating tool, complete with user documentation
and examples? I will also talk to my colleagues to see if there is any
other non-sensitive Java/RPG code we could provide to the community,
particularly in the web space."

Larry,

About 5 years ago I put together a site where I attempted to consolidate
(by hand) relevant open source sites that would be of use or interest to
the (them) System i community. Shortly thereafter I added the
capability to upload files that could be shared, as well as being able
to post code snippets. The site hasn't gotten much use or traffic,
despite my efforts to promote it. I admit it is ugly and needs some
redesign but it is there for anyone to use and post code to. You are
welcome to bundle and upload your code there any time. I don't have the
fastest DSL connection and I always figured if I got enough activity I
might look at a faster connection option but, it works and is available
for free.

The biggest challenge to any open source site or project is obtaining
enough critical mass to generate awareness and traffic. You could
always start a free project on Sourceforge or github or any of the many
other free sites. The issue is having enough focus on the IBM i
audience so that it gains some traction and relevance in the community. I have long been an advocate for open source on the i but except for a
handful of projects actively maintained by a couple of people, there
isn't much open source activity in the i world particularly in RPG. I
was hoping that the opensource4i.com (aka opensource4iseries.com aka
opensource4systemi.com site) would help motivate others to try, but it's
a chicken or egg thing: Without much traffic, nobody knows about the
site, hence no traffic.....

Hosting isn't the issue. An active open source community with the IBM i
at the center is the issue. I love to know how to move that community
forward.

Pete