14 KiB
Open source all over the world
图片来源 : opensource.com
经过了一整天的Opensource.com社区版主年会，最后一项日程提了上来，内容只有“特邀嘉宾：待定”几个字。作为Opensource.com的项目负责人和社区管理员，Jason Hibbets起身解释道，“因为这个嘉宾有可能无法到场，因此我不想提前说是谁。在几个月前我问他何时有空过来，他给了我两个时间点，我选了其中一个。今天是这三周中Jim唯一能来的一天”。（译者注：Jim是指下文中提到的Jim Whitehurst，即红帽公司总裁兼首席执行官）
这句话在版主们（Moderators）中引起一阵轰动，他们从世界各地赶来参加此次的拥抱开源大会(All Things Open Conference)。版主们纷纷往前挪动椅子，仔细聆听。
“他会首先作半个小时的演讲，然后会回答几个提问。”，Jason说道。
会场的门开着，似乎一直在等着这位大人物的出现。这时，会场前唯一一个空位上来了一位高个子。
“大家好！”，这个家伙开口了。他没穿正装，只是衬衫和休闲裤。
这时会场中第二高个子的人，红帽全球意识部门(Global Awareness)的高级主管Jeff Mackanic，告诉他大部分社区版本今天都在场，然后让每个人开始作简单的自我介绍。
“我叫Jen Wike Huger，负责Opensource.com的内容管理，很高兴见到大家。”
“我叫Nicole。是ByWater Solutions的副总裁，我们在做免费的开源库。我到各地旅行并教会人们如何使用软件。”
“我叫Robin，从2013年开始参与版主项目。我在OSDC做了一些事情，工作是在City of the Hague维护网站。”
“我叫Marcus Hanwell，来自英格兰，在Kitware工作。同时，我是FOSS科学软件的技术总监，和国家实验室在Titan Z和Gpu programming方面合作。我主要使用Gentoo和KDE。最后，我很激动能加入FOSS和开源科学。”
“我叫Phil Shapiro，是华盛顿的一个小图书馆28个Linux工作站的管理员。我视各位为我的同事。非常高兴能一起交流分享，贡献力量。我主要关注FOSS和自豪感的关系，以及FOSS如何提升自豪感。”
“我叫Joshua Holm。我大多数时间都在关注系统更新，以及帮助人们在网上找工作。”
“我叫Mel Chernoff，在红帽工作，和[Jason Hibbets]和[Mark Bohannon]一起主要关注政府渠道方面。”
“我叫Scott Nesbitt，写过很多东西，使用FOSS很久了。我是个普通人，不是系统管理员，也不是程序员，只希望能更加高效工作。我帮助人们在商业和生活中使用FOSS。”
“我叫Luis Ibanez，刚加入Google。我对DIY和FOSS感兴趣。”
“我叫Remy DeCausemaker，在RIT MAGIC Center的黑客学院（Resident Hackademic），也是交互式游戏和媒体系的一个兼职教授。现在为Opensource.com写作将近四年。”
“你在新FOSS Minor教书？！”，Jim说道，“很酷！”
“我叫Jason Baker。我是红慢的一个云专家，主要做OpenStack方面的工作。”
“我叫Mark Bohannan，是红帽全球开放协议的一员，在华盛顿外工作。和Mel一样，我花了相当多时间写作，也从法律和政府部门中找合作者。我做了一个很好的小册子来讨论正在发生在政府中的积极变化。”
“我叫Jason Hibbets，我组织了这次会议。”
会场中一片笑声。
“我也组织了这片讨论，可以这么说，”这个棕红色头发笑容灿烂的家伙说道。笑声持续一会逐渐平息。
我当时在他左边，时不时从转录空隙中抬头看一眼，然后从眼神中注意到微笑背后暗示的那个自2008年1月起开始领导公司的人，红帽的CEOJim Whitehurst。
“我有世界上最好的工作，”稍稍向后靠、叉腿抱头，Whitehurst开始了演讲。“我开始领导红帽，在世界各地旅行到处看看情况。在这里的七年中，FOSS和广泛的开源创新所发生的美好的事情是开源已经脱离了条条框框。我现在认为，IT正处在FOSS之前所在的位置。我们可以预见FOSS从一个替代走向创新驱动力。”
"I have one of the greatest jobs on Earth," began Whitehurst, as he leaned back, crossed his legs, and put his arms behind his head. "I get to lead Red Hat, travel around the world and see what goes on. In my seven years here, the amazing thing about FOSS, and, broadly open innovation, is that it has left the fringe. And now, I would argue, IT is in the same place that FOSS was in its early days. We are seeing FOSS going from an alternative to driving innovation. Our customers are seeing it, too. They're using FOSS not because it is cheaper, but because it provides them with control and innovative solutions. It's a global phenomenon, too. For instance, I was just in India, and discovered that, for them, there were two reasons for embracing of open source: one, access to innovation, and two, the market is somewhat different and wanting full control.”
"The Bombay Stock Exchange wants to own all the source and control it. That is not something you would have heard five years ago in a stock exchange, anywhere. Back then, the early knock on FOSS was that it was creating free copies of things that already existed.' If you look today, virtually everything in big data is happening in FOSS. Almost any new framework, language, and methodology, including mobile (though excluding devices), are all happening first in open source.”
"This is because users have reached size and scale. It's not just Red Hat—it's Google, Amazon, Facebook, and others, they want to solve their own problems, and do it the open source way. And forget licensing—open source is much more than that. We've built a vehicle, and a set of norms. Things like Hadoop, Cassandra, and other tools. Fact is, open source drives innovation. For example, Hadoop was in production before any vendor realized there was a problem of that scale that needed to be solved. They actually have the wherewithal to solve their own problems, and the social tech and principles to do that. "Open source is now the default technology for many categories. This is especially true as the world moves more and more to content importance, such as 3D printing and other physical products that take information content and apply it.”
"We have this cool thing in one area, source code, but it is limited. But there are still many opportunities in different industries. We must ask ourselves, 'What can open source do for education, government, and legal? What are the parallels? And what can other areas learn with us?'"
"There's also the matter of content. Content is now free, and we can invest in more free content, sure. But we need free content that has a business model built around it. That is something that more people should care about. If you believe open innovation is better, then we need more models."
"Education worries me with its fixation on 'content' rather than 'communities.' For example, everywhere I go, I hear university presidents say, 'Wait, education is going to be free?!' The fact that FOSS is free for downstream is great, but the upstream is really powerful. Distributing free courses is great, but we need communities to iterate and make it better. That is something that a lot of different people are doing, and Opensource.com is a place to share what is going on in this space. The question is not so much 'How do we take content?' as it is 'How do you build and distribute it? How do you make sure it is a living thing that gets better, and can morph for different areas?'"
"But the potential to change the world is limitless, and it's amazing how much progress we've already made. Six years ago we were obsessed about defining a mission statement. We started by saying, 'We are the leader,' but that was the wrong word, because it implied control. Active participant didn't quite get it either... Máirín Duffy came up with the word catalyst. And so, we became Red Hat, the company that creates environments to agitate action and catalyze direction.”
"Opensource.com is a catalyst in other areas, and that is what Opensource.com is about. I hope you see yourselves this way, too. The quality of content then, when we started, versus now, is incredible. You can see it getting better every quarter. Thank you for investing your time. Thank you for being catalysts. This is a chance for us all to make the world a better place. And I'd love to hear from you."
I stole a glimpse of everyone at the table: more than a few people had tears in their eyes.
Then, Whitehurst revisits the open education topic of conversation again. "Taking it to an extreme, let's say you have a course about the book Ulysses. Here, you can explore how to crowdsource a model and get people to work together within the course. Well, it's the same with a piece of code: people work together, and the code itself gets better over time."
At this point, I get to have my say. Words like fundamental and possibly irreconcilable came up when discussing the differences between FOSS and academic communities.
Remy: "Retraction is career death." Releasing data or code with your paper could be devastating if you make a mistake. School has always been about avoiding failure and divining 'right answers'. Copying is cheating. Wheels are recreated from scratch ritualistically. In FOSS, you work to fail fastest, but in academia, you invite invalidation."
Nicole: "There are a lot of egos in academia. You need a release manager."
Marcus: "To collaborate, you have to show the bits you don't understand, and that happens behind closed doors. The reward model is all about what you can take credit for. We need to change the reward model. Publish as much as you can. We release eventually, but we want to release early."
Luis: "Make teamwork and sharing a priority. And Red Hat can say that to them more."
Jim: "Is there an active role that companies can play in that?"
Phil Shapiro: "I'm interested in tipping points in FOSS. It drives me nuts that the Fed hasn't switched to LibreOffice. We're not spending tax dollars on software, and certainly shouldn't be spending on word processing or Microsoft Office."
Jim: "We have advocated for that. A lot. Can we do more? That's a valid question. Primarily, we've made progress in the places we have products. We have a solid franchise in government. We are larger per IT spend there than the private sector. Banks and telcos are further along than the government. We've done better in Europe, and I think they have less lobbying dollars at work there, than here. This next generation of computing is almost like a 'do-over'. We are making great progress elsewhere, but it is concerning."
Suddenly, the door to the room opened. Jim turned and nodded towards his executive assistant standing in the doorway; it was time for his next meeting. He uncrossed his legs, leaned forward, and stood. He thanked everyone again for their work and dedication, smiled, and was out the door... leaving us all a bit more inspired.
via: https://opensource.com/business/14/12/jim-whitehurst-inspiration-open-source