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hyperbole? plenty of petitions, few resultshyperbole? plenty of petitions, few resultsPosted Nov 29, 2006 2:47 UTC (Wed) by stevenj (subscriber, #421)In reply to: Who is being divisive? by BrucePerens Parent article: Who is being divisive?
I don't believe that 2450 people have ever signed anything in the entire history of Free Software and Open Source. This is a first. The depth of anger about the Novell deal is really stunning. This is a bit of an overstatement, Bruce. I tried Googling "free software petition" and "open source petition" and quickly found several counter-examples:
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hyperbole? plenty of petitions, few results Posted Nov 29, 2006 4:26 UTC (Wed) by roelofs (subscriber, #2599) [Link] Personally, I've never seen any convincing evidence that these kinds of online petitions make any difference.Perhaps this isn't a perfect example, but:
This was more about supporting open standards than open source, and I suspect Mozilla/Firefox may have had a bit more to do with the improvement than did the petition, but I'm pretty certain folks at Microsoft were aware of it, at least. Greg
hyperbole? plenty of petitions, few results Posted Nov 29, 2006 6:25 UTC (Wed) by BrucePerens (subscriber, #2510) [Link] This open letter has had some good results. There's been a lot of press, especially internationally, and thus a lot of people understand the issue who would otherwise have known nothing of it. I have an investment analyst conference call in the morning to talk about it - investors have become aware of the problem and want to know more. It's helping shed light on the software patent problem, and we desperately need that. And I think it's helped change opinions one step outside of our community from the initial ones, that Novell is going to gain a substantial advantage out of this, to a more accurate perception.Those 2450 people showed how they feel in a way that outsiders could understand and then judge Novell by. That was important. They will probably not change Novell's minds. That was not expected. But they have changed other people's minds. Bruce
hyperbole? plenty of petitions, few results Posted Nov 29, 2006 7:03 UTC (Wed) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link] [...] I tried Googling "free software petition" and "open source petition" and quickly found several counter-examples:* against European software patents: 462808 signatures [...] Personally, I've never seen any convincing evidence that these kinds of online petitions make any difference. I don't have either, but the European anti-software petition got quoted in the debates over the EU software patent directive, and I believe it is not unreasonable to think it swayed a few MEPs to our side. After all they are elected politicians and the petition at least showed there are potential constituents who care about the matter. Without this and other public shows of opinion, the EU parliament would probably have rubber-stamped the directive as yet another arcane piece of industrial legislation that no ordinary people care anything about.
hyperbole? plenty of petitions, few results Posted Nov 29, 2006 7:38 UTC (Wed) by BrucePerens (subscriber, #2510) [Link] Expressing our opinion as a group, in an organized way, is important. I'm concerned that when we talk about this being ineffective, the end result is that the dissuade members of our community from helping in an important way.Sure, I'd like to have a more direct way for them to help. I'm working on that. Thanks Bruce
hyperbole? plenty of petitions, few results Posted Nov 29, 2006 9:45 UTC (Wed) by stijn (subscriber, #570) [Link] By the way, I still think the petition a very good idea, and your letter addresses the issues well, so thank you for that. The personal notes do make it .. more personal and I guess more convincing as well. The thing that struck me was the attitude of people turning their back on Novell without leaving any apparent room for reconciliation (the impact is mostly in the gesture I presume). I don't think I saw anything that should be censored, and my use of the word 'offensive' might have been a wee bit strong. I guess a petition is as good a place as any to display strong emotions - it just reminds me of the way threads spiral out of control in newsnet.
hyperbole? plenty of petitions, few results Posted Nov 29, 2006 17:56 UTC (Wed) by BrucePerens (subscriber, #2510) [Link] The thing that struck me was the attitude of people turning their back on Novell without leaving any apparent room for reconciliation (the impact is mostly in the gesture I presume).Those are the people who feel that the petition isn't going to change Novell's minds. They are signing it to state their feeling on the issue, not as a prayer for reconsideration. Thanks Bruce
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