UTOSC: Applying open source ideals to more than software

Over the last few years, Red Hat has taken the lead in investigating ways to apply the concepts behind free software to various other fields. That has led to things like the book The Open Source Way and the opensource.com web site. Karsten Wade of Red Hat's community architecture team came to the Utah Open Source Conference to formalize some of the ideas that underpin open source and describe how they can be applied more widely. It is, he said, an effort to "decouple open source from technology", so that other people can "remap" those ideas onto other fields.

The underlying idea behind free and open source software is the four freedoms embodied in GNU's free software definition, and the idea that "none of us are free until all of us are free", Wade said. There is very little difference between the free software and open source camps, but there is an "artificially constructed fight" between the two. This conflict is sustained, largely by the press, to make it look like there is some "deep inherent argument" between the supporters of each.

But if we remove all of the labels, both sides agree on 85-95% of the issues, he said, and the differences are largely in what the priorities are. The idea of "free software" has worked well for hackers, while "open source" has been popular with businesses, as "it resonates with them". That has led to there being a really strong brand around the open source term, which is why Red Hat (and others) talk about "the open source way". They are "riding on the coattails of a well-known brand", Wade said.

Certain elements must be present in any open source endeavor. There needs to be an infrastructure set up that fosters participation, as well as an infrastructure to share the results of any work. Obviously, there has to be something to share, along with people to share it, i.e. participants. These elements are also present in what is known as a "community of practice"—a sociological concept that shares much with the open source way. Looking at communities of practice can help to understand the communities that already exist for FOSS, as well as to help shape new communities as they arise.

A community of practice is a group of people that come together because they share a concern or passion. There is a specific domain that the community of practice operates in—the concern or passion of its members—along with a "practice", which is how they address problems in that domain. These are much like—perhaps identical to—the requirements for using open source techniques. In addition, communities of practice have a number of principles that help separate them from other kinds of groups.

It is important that a community of practice be designed for evolution—it is not just thinking about what is going on now, but allowing for new ideas that will help define its future. A dialog between those inside and outside of the community is important, so that the group doesn't become insular. There should be different levels of participation available, which will allow anyone who is not harming the group to still do what they want: "if they want to fold napkins, let them". Often these peripheral participants learn how to get things done within the group by finding out who to talk to; it is a stepping stone.

Communities of practice also develop in both public and private spaces. It is essential that they are governed in public, but private talks are important as well. People need to be able to get together privately, over drinks for example, to discuss things outside of the public sphere. These communities also focus on value, because "people want to belong to something that makes a difference". If these things sound familiar, it is because FOSS projects are almost always communities of practice.

Wade used barn-raising as an example of where some of the ideas behind open source comes from. If you want to get people together to build a barn, you don't just stack up wood, cement bags, and shovels, then ask everyone to dive in. You first need to survey the land, build the foundation, and get it ready for lots of people to participate. "The infrastructure had to be there so that everyone could do the common work", he said. FOSS projects are much the same way.

Another analogy he used was that of musicians coming together on the village green. Each musician brings their style and tunes to the common space, and each is ready to learn from what the others bring. As the "jam" progresses, there is a friendly competition between the participants to try to outdo each other. That is similar to how FOSS project participants work together.

While many believe that FOSS works on the "Tom Sawyer" model, where one group or organization takes advantage of the work of others (much as Tom took advantage of his friends' fence-painting work), that is not the open source way, Wade stressed. Red Hat and others are often accused of that, but that's "not how it goes"; the community will notice freeloaders. Some may get away it for a while, but eventually it will be noticed.

Michael Tiemann's experience showing his daughter how to work the resonant pendulum at San Francisco's Exploratorium was Wade's final analogy. In order to move that pendulum, it takes regular, small tugs on the weak magnet, but eventually the 350-pound pendulum will be swinging four feet in either direction. In FOSS, Wade said, "sometimes it seems like we have to wrap a rope around it and give it a huge tug", but we don't need that, and little incremental things (like regular releases) can make all the difference.

As the talk wound down, Wade surveyed the audience for additional examples of communities of practice and open source techniques being used in other fields. He also showed two videos from opensource.com that described how two very different fields (seed banks and film-making) were recognizing that open source ideals and techniques can be—and are being—used in their work. The open source way is a powerful tool that has been in use for a very long time, and in a wide variety of places. Talks like this one can only help to spread that word, so that it can be applied even more widely.