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Date:      Wed, 08 Apr 1998 19:31:36 -0600
From:      Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
To:        questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Is someone from FreeBSD participating in this?
Message-ID:  <199804090131.TAA20981@lariat.lariat.org>

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The following message describes a meeting held by O'Reilly and
Associates about free software. Was someone from FreeBSD in
attendance?

--Brett Glass

>Date: Wed, 08 Apr 1998 21:03:42 -0400
>From: James Love <love@cptech.org>
>Organization: http://www.cptech.org
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; I)
>To: Multiple recipients of list <am-info@essential.org>
>Subject: Open Source meeting report
>
>Subject: IP: open source interests
>   Date: Wed, 08 Apr 1998 20:53:15 -0400
>   From: Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
>     To: ip-sub-1@majordomo.pobox.com
>
>Date:         Tue, 7 Apr 1998 23:49:30 -0700
>From: Judi Clark <judic@manymedia.com>
>Subject:      open source interests
>:
>:
>
>Yesterday, O'Reilly (publishers) convened a meeting that I thought
>might be of interest to this group. The attendees at the meeting
>included a few names we may have never heard of yet whose work we
>depend on each day:
>
>Sameer Parakh, C2/Stronghold software
>Paul Vixie, BIND
>Brian Behlendorf, Apache
>Eric Allman & Greg Olson, Sendmail
>Tom Paquin & Jamie Zawinski, Netscape
>Linus Torvalds, Linux
>Tim O'Reilly
>Larry Wall, perl
>John Ousterhaut, Tcl/Tk
>Guido van Rossum, Python
>John Gilmore (various)
>Eric Raymond, "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" (excellent article)
>Phil Zimmermann, PGP
>and several others
>
>I've been hoping to see an effort of this kind for some time now,
>and was happy to attend the press event following the meeting.
>The main things covered at the meeting were establishing some
>terminology ("open source means source code open to the public"),
>and starting to look at methodology for any kind of collaborations
>that might emerge. One point that came out clearly was the need
>for the public to see and understand the significance of this
>model of software development, and its prevalence in our lives.
>No big PR departments to alert the press when new developments
>come along.
>
>Yes, it was clear that much of the press was largely lost in this
>new world. Was it Open Source vs. Microsoft? How was Open Source
>ever going to make it in a shrinkwrapped world? And how will the
>press know what's coming next? Little did they know that shrinkwrap
>is, we were told, but a small percent of the overall software-
>related business world. And how would anyone make a living in this
>Open Source world? (As if distribution and customer support were
>not the major expenses? Driving down the cost of distribution still
>leaves a whale of an opportunity, as Cygnus and C2 demonstrate!)
>
>The main points to be shared are the following:
>
>1. Open source runs a lot of stuff now.
>2. Open source software development spawns new businesses and models
>3. There is a social impact yet to be discovered
>4. Open source demonstrates new ideas through mass usage
>5. protects freedom of choice, keeps the market honest
>
>The work is beginning to increase awareness and mindshare. Just as
>some of us are coders and testers...
>
>I'm sure you will see more info about this meeting soon on O'Reilly's
>web site. The press release (with links) is found at:
>  http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/press/freeware.html
>
>You might also be interested in the "grim scenario" at the beginning
>of this article:
>  http://www.netaction.org/articles/freesoft.html

>
>  judi
> 

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