[hackerspaces] Hackerspaces survey on Free/Libre Open Source Software

[Ethan Chew]

> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2014 15:53:28 -0500
> From: Mike  Dupont <jamesmikedupont at googlemail.com>
> To: Hackerspaces General Discussion List
>         <discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org>
> Subject: Re: [hackerspaces] Hackerspaces survey on Free/Libre Open
>         Source  Software
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> On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 3:34 PM, Ethan Chew <spacefelix at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Is such collaboration possible, what examples have been seen and what
> > would you envision such from the perspective of FLOSS?
>
>
> Well, first of all without any profit or source of income working on floss
> is not really viable. I am not against profits, capitalism or
> entrepreneurship.
> Not everything has to be public and open.
>
> There are many combinations of closed and open, private and public and non
> and for profits. Hackerspaces need to pay for rent and utilities etc.
> There are open source companies that are for profit. There are non profits
> companies that use only non-free software.
>

Gotcha Mike,

      Thank-you for that.  It is my admission that there are times I have
felt that I or a project I am working on ends up having to firmly occupy
one or the other side of the spectrum and that it is difficult to hold the
ground inbetween.  You can part out the project to allow some kind of
bridging, but it still has very clear delineations between the closed and
open elements.  It's almost like making a car and the tires are
open-source, but the engine is not.  That is where I wonder if the whole
car can be in both worlds, for-profit and open and if I can study such
examples from your mention above.


>
> For me, i just wish that there were some criteria and guidelines we could
> all agree on that we can send  to people who want to call themselves a
> hackerspace to guide them. I see that my survery was very biased in my
> personal view of FLOSS as pointed out by Randall.
>
> For me I am thinking about creating what these guidelines might include,
> and maybe this is the forum to discuss them.
>

I would definitely appreciate the chance to discuss such guidelines.  It
will be a learning experience for me as I am more of an atomic/dirt hacker
than a bit hacker (I work with gardens, airplanes and rockets) and it would
be interesting to see how FLOSS translates from software into hardware.

I worked prior with School Factory (www.schoolfactory.org) that is
currently working on the Make-A-Space-Kit (
https://atrium.schoolfactory.org/spacekit/home) to support startup
hackerspaces and guide them in their development.  As you guys develop the
FLOSS guidelines, that would be something that would be valuable to the kit
and the body of knowledge of hackerspaces to be able to reference a 'How To
Do FLOSS' in a space.

Furthermore, there is an initiative to do open-source hardware for space
travel and exploration under Mach 30 (http://mach30.org/).  Comparing notes
would be interesting to do as well.


>
> There is an analogy to government as being a form of a club as well :
> Personally I would like to see local and state government to be under some
> open data and access policy. (
>
> http://www.socrata.com/open-data-field-guide-chapter/developing-your-open-data-policy/
> )
> . Also I am hoping to see that the data is accessible for disabled people
> and usable from screen readers. But local governments like hackerspaces are
> free to do as they wish and as long as they are viable they will survive
> and continue.
>
>
> mike
>
> --
> James Michael DuPont
> Member of Free Libre Open Source Software Kosova http://www.flossk.org
> Saving Wikipedia(tm) articles from deletion
> http://SpeedyDeletion.wikia.com
> Mozilla Rep https://reps.mozilla.org/u/h4ck3rm1k3
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