Why quasi-open source doesn't work

About Me

I'm Dan Scott, barista, library geek, and open source dabbler. You may know me from such projects as PHP (PEAR's File_MARC package and PDO documentation), Apache Derby, and the Evergreen open-source ILS project.

I'm the Systems Librarian for Laurentian University. You can reach me by email at dan@coffeecode.net.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.

Syndicate This Blog

RSS 0.91 feed

RSS 1.0 feed

RSS 2.0 feed

ATOM 0.3 feed

ATOM 1.0 feed

RSS 2.0 Comments

Zend Certification

Tuesday, September 19. 2006

A few minutes ago, I gave you some examples of how open source works. Now I'm going to give you an example of how quasi-open source doesn't work.

Looking for a tool to help visualize the development of our library's new Web site, I came across a reference in the Atlas of Cyberspaces to:

a neat Java application for dynamically constructing interactive visual maps of Web sites

The neat Java application was called Mappucino. The tool was released through IBM's alphaWorks, a site that I had long (and wrongly) associated with as IBM's location for open source projects. One must read the fine print, however; the following sentences from About alphaWorks summarize alphaWork's purpose for existence:

Since 1996, alphaWorks has succeeded in helping IBM connect with innovative developers to lead the development of promising new standards, products, and open-source technology. To date, forty percent of technologies posted to the alphaWorks Web site have been incorporated into IBM products or licensed to third-party developers.

So, other than the remarkably commercial bent of the goals for the site projects, what surprised me was the text displayed when I followed the link to Mappucino:

Mapuccino has been retired.

Yup, that's it. No link to a download. No source code. Just the bios of six researchers who probably laboured over this project for months--not to mention any input from the innovative developers from outside IBM--only to see it disappear without a trace. Even if the tool was stuck deeply in JRE 1.3 (or earlier) code, somebody might have been willing to pick it up and update it for JRE 1.5. Blah. Boo. Based on this experience, I wouldn't suggest volunteering too much time to help out with an alphaWorks project. Real open source has an openly accessible source code repository with an accompanying open source license and a genuine commitment behind it to make the code available.

My quest for a good Web site visualization tool continues, by the way. Recommendations are welcomed.

Posted by Dan Scott in Programming languages at 19:27 | Comments (2)

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

find anything?

#1 6billionghosts (Homepage) on 2008-01-18 17:00 (Reply)

Alas, no.

#1.1 Dan Scott (Homepage) on 2008-02-18 14:44 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above: Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_.
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry