Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 09:25:36 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: dot@dotat.at (Tony Finch) Cc: tlambert@primenet.com (Terry Lambert), freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Netscape story Message-ID: <200102220925.CAA10847@usr05.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <20010222075131.A9337@hand.dotat.at> from "Tony Finch" at Feb 22, 2001 07:51:31 AM
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> >So to start an Open Source project requires some thought, and > >it requires a license that's not aggregious, and is at least > > "egregious" Well, there went my egregious spelling error coupon. 8-). > >commercial utilization (not use) neutral, and it requires a > >central point for the community to communicate and grow up > >around (technically: a Schelling point). > > Actually that's a misuse of the term. Schelling was talking about > zero-sum games in which communication between the players is either > impossible or unproductive. In this situation a player acheives the > best outcome by aiming for the "Schelling point" which is a > negotiating position that all the players can agree on. In some games > this implies that there is lots of mindshare associated with that > position; for example when choosing a programming language in which to > implement a system, Java might be the Schelling point because > management have heard of it and HR see a lot of CVs that mention it. > However it isn't right to refer to something with a lot of mindshare > as a Schelling point when there isn't the background implication of > some kind of negotiation over which option to choose. I was trying to use it to describe the mutually arrived at community, which I meant in terms of a communications forum, not the mindshare that competing ideas in that forum can grab. In the technical sense, I was saying that you can't pick your developers, communicate only to them, and have only them show up at the party. Project participation is self selecting. When I think of Schelling points first, then the examples that come to mind first is the "README" file; there was no convention in which communication between companies and customers both decided that the file with important last minute things in it would be named "README"; it just sort of emerged. Hope that clears up what I meant... Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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