Re: Why open source?

But individual ownership is a big motivator, too; reaping from that which

you sew; which may not mesh with your ideas about open-source. How would
you reconcile that?

I think this is a tough one for those of us from software selling companies
because we are always on the lookout for ways to meet a customer need and
subsequently have the customer pay us so we can feed the mouths of our
children. But as Vern alluded to, sometimes the case is that we have a
primary source of income and then we do the other stuff as a hobby of sorts.

Getting "paid" comes in many forms. Money is obviously one way to get paid,
but money can only meet so many needs in a person. After pushing every
envelope I could find for the past 12 years as a software developer I have a
pretty decent salary - but I have found I am not happier because of it.
That's where doing something for nothing comes into play. It's fun to get
the thank-yous from the people you have helped, but even more than that it
is fun to create relationships with people and be involved in their lives.
Take Vern for example, we always have a good laugh together whenever we are
at the same events and what not (we had a good laugh about my critique of
his website when we were in Rochester together last month ;-). That
relationship started because we both choose to be involved in community (as
many others also have on this list).

To change the picture a bit let's ask why someone would donate time to help
their neighbor shovel their driveway after a big storm. The next time you
talk to that neighbor over a beer you will recall the fond memories and
laugh about your shovel breaking, or the dead cat you found frozen in the
snow bank (hopefully not theirs!), or, or, or....

Relationships and experiences are where it's at.

BTW, I appreciated your comment on Steve Wills blog, as well as other

places, promoting the idea of micro-partitioning IBM i servers in small
enough slices, that individual programmers might afford autonomy,
self-direction, and individual ownership of work product.

Good to hear! Keep checking the pulse on this topic because there is much
more to come. Things like what Jim is mentioning with
http://www.idevcloud.com are the start of something significant in the IBMi
space. See where you can get involved.

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
http://mowyourlawn.com/blog/


On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 4:48 PM, Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Aaron Bartell
Awhile back we had discussion about why in the heck someone would
want to give away source without much, if any, monetary or business
return.

I could relate to the video, too. Individuals pursuing activities that
require thinking, and especially creativity, need and value autonomy and
self-direction. And we're willing to sacrifice money, for it.

But individual ownership is a big motivator, too; reaping from that which
you sew; which may not mesh with your ideas about open-source. How would
you reconcile that?

BTW, I appreciated your comment on Steve Wills blog, as well as other
places, promoting the idea of micro-partitioning IBM i servers in small
enough slices, that individual programmers might afford autonomy,
self-direction, and individual ownership of work product. Too many IBM i
programmers are stuck with working only on employer's servers, where the
employer controls the manner and means, so to speak.

-Nathan.