Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Show me the Code - Open Source

"Talk is cheap - Show me the Code" - FOSS.in/2008. I derived my headline from FOSS.in.

It has been a very long time I wrote some thing. What was I doing all these days.....?

I was requesting every one to show me their code :)

Here are my thoughts on Open Source -

- What is Open Source?
Show your source

- What is Source?
Effort !!! after putting enormous energy, time and patience one will come up with few lines of code that addresses or solves a problem.

- Are Efforts paid?
Yes, some times Efforts are paid or brought by some one. Some times they are Free.

- When I combine the above ...
Its all about Sharing My Effort...!

- Why do I need to Share some thing that I learnt or developed?
To make it evolve.

While talking to a professor at a college, I told "Students have learnt selfishness for 25 years and on a single day we cannot teach them Sharing"

Our life starts at home, when parent tell their kid not to share there homework to get ranked high at school, Teachers never advice to work collaboratively on a problem as we are ranked based on our answers, College doesn't teach us working together in examination halls. In our entire life we are told to deal with problems on an individual basis, we are asked to hide our efforts to get better name in society. After spending our life on these principles for 25 years, one day HR at an organization asks us "ARE YOU A TEAM PLAYER ?" --

Common on, how can I be a team player, I always solved problems on my own, never learnt using efforts of others, or sharing my own efforts. How can you expect me to be a team player?

Open Source,
- is not giving your lines of code to some one when you don't need any more,
- is not publishing 1000s of lines on a single day and asking others to work on the same
- is not about disclosing your source for free
- is not about teaching or building expertize on your work

It is all about solving problems collaboratively. If you forget collaborating, then the opened source of yours is of no use.

Openess enables Innovation, Innovation solves problems and Gives credit for what you are called "an engineer..."

Enjoy Open Source Solutions at http://beagleboard.org/ ...!