Beyond Doing Business
The Continuing Importance of Community Development

Bdale Garbee

HP Linux CTO

Definitions

Community

My English dictionary defines “community” as:

A body of people having common rights, privileges, or interests, or living in the same place under the same laws and regulations.

We all participate in traditional communities

the towns we live in, the schools we attended

churches, sports teams, volunteer organizations

The Internet enabled the formation of a new class of communities that did not previously exist.

People with common interests or values

Potentially broadly geographically distributed

Development

Dictionaries have a lot to say about “development”

A state in which things are improving.

Changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level.

The act of making some area of land or water more profitable or productive or useful.

The process of analysis, design, coding and testing software.

Community Development

Developers: The software development process most commonly associated with the Linux kernel, and adopted by many other projects including Debian.

Customers: Expanding the addressable market for Linux and Open Source solutions.

Citizens: Raising the level of technology literacy and economic potential of traditional communities in developing regions.

So ?

Doing Business

While it may have started as a hobby for many of us, Linux and related Open Source software is now big business.

Big companies aren't generally participating in the Linux marketplace for philosophical reasons... it's business!

Major ISVs treating Linux as a first-class platform.

Last year's media coverage of OSCON...

“Open for business”

“Ready for prime time”

HP's $2.5 billion in Linux-attributable revenue last year.

Doing Business

“I like being able to put the $

at the end of my geek code!”

Beyond Doing Business?

How did we get to where we are?

What makes Linux and Open Source “special”?

Investing in the future with only vague notions of the potential returns...

Beyond Doing Business?

Where does innovation really happen?

Surprisingly often, it comes because “amateurs” do something “industry” or “the establishment” doesn't believe they can do...

Recognize these guys?

Does this help?

How about this guy?

Satellites

On 4 October 1957, Russia shocked the world by launching Sputnik 1, the world's first man-made orbiting satellite.

On 31 January 1958, the USA launched Explorer 1, the “free world's” first successful satellite.

On 12 December 1961, amateur radio operators in the USA launched their first Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio, or “OSCAR”.

Since then, radio amateurs have successfully launched 51 satellites, about half of which are still working!

OSCAR-7

Launched in November of 1974.

In 1981, the batteries failed.

In 2002, an amateur radio station heard familiar-sounding noises, and investigated... OSCAR-7 was transmitting again!

OSCAR-7 is currently AMSAT's oldest operational satellite... almost 30 years after launch!

Fast-Forward to OSCAR-40

The largest, most complicated amateur satellite ever built... it took over 10 years to build and launch, and cost over 4.5 million dollars... all of which were donated!

In addition to serving as an amateur radio communications satellite, AO-40 also carried some interesting science experiments:

radiation measuring system

earth imaging cameras

GPS receivers

Back to Open Source...

Debian?

What is Debian?

'The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system.'

More specifically, Debian

is one of the most popular GNU/Linux distributions

is a completely open volunteer organization

is quite international

works with companies to develop and maintain software

is Focused on Freedom

is well represented in the Free Software world

Strong proof of the viability of the Linux kernel model of community-based software development.

Evolution of the Debian Community

Ian Murdock's Debian Manifesto attracted people excited by the idea of Free Software to join the project

The Social Contract and associated Debian Free Software Guidelines articulated the core set of shared values of the growing Debian community. Acceptance of these values became a criteria for acceptance into the community.

As the community continued to evolve, a constitution was drafted to clarify roles and responsibilities, and to provide for conflict resolution and decision making.

The Debian community continues to evolve, but the results already speak for themselves...

A Few Debian Statistics

Debian runs on everything from handhelds to mainframes

11 released architectures

alpha arm hppa i386 ia64 m68k mips mipsel powerpc s390 sparc

unreleased port to x86_64 architecture

also working with non-Linux kernels

Debian's technology, policies, and packages form the basis for a rich variety of custom and derived distributions.

1371 people

8912 source packages

15393 binary packages

Map of Debian Developers

Applying the results of

community development...

to developing community.

Extremadura

A region in the South-West of Spain, near the Portugese border, with a population of about one million people.

One of the poorest regions in Spain, facing difficult economic challenges.

A place where 80,000 Linux desktop computers were deployed in schools, one for every two students in the public education system!

A model for successful large-scale Linux deployments in government and education that many hope to duplicate.

Closer to Home

Linux User Groups

Help a non-profit organization become more effective through the application of technology.

Chuckle less when you overhear strangers trying to explain computers to each other, and think about what you can do in your own real-world communities to increase technology literacy!

So, what does this all mean?

Motivated communities of people with a common interest can accomplish astounding things, even when there's no direct economic return.

Companies like HP working hand in hand with partners, competitors, and individual developers around the world to advance technology with a minimum of legal and financial overhead... is a beautiful thing!

If you really want to “help make the world safe for bits”, put your skills and experience to work applying Open Source code and principles in your real-world communities...

2004-06-03T15:13:27