[Esip-opensource] FW: [mil-oss] Fwd: An Alliance of Major Players to Guide Open-Source Software - NYTimes.com

Wed Sep 17 10:45:35 EDT 2014

------------------------
Chris Mattmann
chris.mattmann at gmail.com


-----Original Message-----
From: John Scott <jms3rd at gmail.com>
Reply-To: <mil-oss at googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 6:17 AM
To: <mil-oss at googlegroups.com>
Subject: [mil-oss] Fwd: An Alliance of Major Players to Guide Open-Source
Software - NYTimes.com

>
>An Alliance of Major Players to Guide Open-Source SoftwareBy QUENTIN
>HARDY <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/author/quentin-hardy/> SEPTEMBER 15,
>2014 6:54 PMSeptember 16, 2014 1:16 pm Comment
>Photo
>³This is going to be a journey,² said Jay Parikh, left, global head of
>engineering at Facebook, which helped form the TODO Project.Credit Jim
>Wilson/The New York Times
>The combined force of cloud computing and mobile devices is changing our
>world, putting nearly infinite amounts of machine intelligence into
>billions of hands and millions of businesses.
>Now this force is also changing the way the entire infrastructure is
>built, including the devices themselves.
>Representatives of Facebook on Monday announced the formation of a group,
>the TODO Project <http://todogroup.org/#header>, intended to streamline
>the way open-source software projects, a big part of cloud and mobile
>computing, are executed. This may include such things as best practices
>for updating open-source software, ways of securing legal compliance, or
>tools and habits for making software that is freely available to anyone.
>Open source is a popular approach to software, in which anyone can
>contribute to and use the code. Formal approval of changes comes from
>agreed-upon authorities who speak for the group. It is considered a good
>way to build software with fewer bugs, and such software makes up much of
>the world¹s mobile and computer server operating systems, as well as many
>other applications.
>³There is a problem here we all feel is not getting better anytime soon,²
>said Jay Parikh, global head of engineering at Facebook. ³We feel there
>is a speed at which things have to move.²
>At first blush, the effort might seem like the further corporate control
>of one of the most important technologies of this era. That may be so,
>but it is more importantly a sign of just how critical that technology
>has become, and how its growing importance needs to be managed in ways
>that are more expedient, clear and consistent than was possible in the
>movement¹s early days.
>Members of TODO, which stands for ³talk openly, develop openly,² include
>Google and Walmart¹s online operations <http://www.walmartlabs.com/>,
>along withGitHub <https://github.com/>, the primary repository for
>working on open-source projects, and Khan Academy,
><https://www.khanacademy.org/> a nonprofit online educational
>organization. Other members are Twitter, Box, Dropbox, Stripe and Square.
>Since the group was announced, over 30 other companies have added
>themselves to the TODO list, including The New York Times, according to a
>company spokesman.
>There is a reason for setting up a group like this. A significant part of
>the software that powers things like Facebook, Google search and the
>Android mobile operating system is based on open source. As more
>companies and independent developers get involved in these communal
>projects, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep straight which
>versions people are working on.
>Facebook, for example, may release new parts of its software twice a day,
>far faster than the pace at which open-source releases came out in their
>earliest mainframe computing days, and with far more participants
>creating and consuming open-source software in the client-server
>computing era of 20 years ago.
>As the software inside the overall system of mobile phones, tablets,
>applications and remote computing infrastructure becomes even more
>complex, there are also worries that people working on different versions
>will cause breakdowns.
>In a statement on his company¹s website
><http://www.linkplugapp.com/a/647482>, Sam Schillace, the head of
>engineering at Box, said the group was ³committed to helping companies
>develop a common set of tools and streamlined processes for releasing
>open source software.²
>While the goal may be to move quickly, the organization also showed a
>certain initial wariness, perhaps as befits a group with members who
>might also wish to crush one another in the marketplace. Mr. Parikh was
>hesitant to talk about what types of code the group would work on, or
>what the criteria might be for other companies to join, besides having
>dedicated open-source teams on staff.
>³We¹re going to get together, get things into a plan,² he said. ³This is
>going to be a journey.²
>
>
> 
>
>http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/15/an-alliance-of-major-players-to-g
>uide-open-source-software/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
>
>
>
>-------------------------------------------
>John Scott
> 240.401.6574
>< jms3rd at gmail.com >
>http://powdermonkey.blogs.com
>@johnmscott
>
>
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