SunMink

Simon Phipps's other Weblog
(a WebMink in the Sun)

The Other Side of the Glass

I've been thinking recently about how the role we play in an activity shapes the way we understand it. Getting my little roller-skate of a car serviced, the folk at the garage take the keys, go to the otherside of a big window and get to work on the service process while I sit in a comfy chair nursing a cup of coffee and worrying about how much it will all cost. We're both "getting the car serviced", but what that means differs hugely depending on what side of the glass you are.

On the oily side of the glass, it's all about quality, safety, parts, engineering, teamwork, participation. A group of experienced professionals is working to make sure my Roadster works just right.

On the coffee side of the glass, it's all about waiting to drive, when it will be finished, how much it costs and - most importantly - where to get more coffee.

I think "open source" is like this too. The "glass" divides software deployers and software developers. One side of the glass it's all about participating in a community of code, innovating, contributing and other developer issues. The other side of the glass it's all about value-for-money, freedom of choice of supplier, low exit costs and other business issues.

This is not to deny that some people are capable of "home servicing" - but for most folks there are two worlds that we should strive to avoid confusing. It's this that Dan Farber misses when he says:

... not every CIO cares about having access to code or hearing about social infrastructure and ages of participation.

It's "open source" on both sides of the glass but we misunderstand one another if we use the concepts and values from the wrong side of the glass when we discuss what that means. Just because we reject the arguments that motivate "the other side" it doesn't mean we don't need open source software ourselves.

Posted by webmink ( Feb 24 2006, 06:13:35 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [4]