[-empyre-] seeing yourself a prototype - the limits of open source

[Julian Oliver]

..on Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 11:34:49PM -0700, adrian at cnmat.berkeley.edu wrote:
> The software might be free and the prototype might be free, but you, the
> creator are not.
> You are bound in a panopticon where anonymous others can observe and
> scrutinize your creative output. How can you not mediate your behavior
> aware of this scrutiny? Is the prototype a tentative confirmation of
> conformity that announces a productivity that funds the panoptican?

hehe ;)

Well writing Free Software tends to offer a rewarding 'panopticon' for those
that excercise their freedom to give away what they make, the courage to allow
their work be so widely peer-reviewed, the open-mindedness to allow it to be
re-purposed and the humility to allow it to be improved. 

It is a model of productivity yes, a socially productive selfishness.

If their's any behavioural alteration in having countless thousands read your
source-code, it's to get better at writing source-code.

Cheers,

-- 
Julian Oliver
home: New Zealand
based: Berlin, Germany 
currently: Berlin, Germany
about: http://julianoliver.com