Episode 37: An Open Source History Lesson & More with Patrick Masson

May 22, 2020

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Panelists

Pia Mancini | Eric Berry | Justin Dorfman | Richard Littauer

Guest

Patrick Masson
Open Source Initiative

Show Notes

In this episode, we have Patrick Masson, who is the General Manager and Board Director of OSI (Open Source Initiative). Patrick gives some very interesting “nerd history” on Open Source Software. Did you know that you can find Open Source Intelligence as a reference to World War 2? Listen here to find out more interesting things about OSI.

[00:01:33] We start off with Patrick telling us about his job with the OSI.

[00:03:22] Patrick fills us in on the history of OSI, how it started, how long it’s been going, and what are the main things that he does. There is some very cool history revealed here.

[00:08:07] Patrick talks more about communities of collaborative contributors and he touches again on the history of OSI. The term “Openwashing” is explained.

[00:21:00] Pia brings up a topic to Patrick about lately, there has been some friction with groups or other projects trying to use different Open Source licenses in the name of creating better sustainability opportunities for Open Source. He comments about it.

[00:24:31] Patrick answers a question about the idea of avoiding the business model trap of sustainability. He talks about it and also has a great quote.

[00:28:36] Justin chimes in to say he always hears that 98% of companies use Open Source Software. Where did that come from, is it true, and who’s behind that? Patrick answers this.

[00:30:49] Eric brings up a study done by Black Duck Software with the Northbridge survey done in 1915, to back up the number of users. Patrick is on a “roll” with stats here.

[00:36:51] Pia wants to clarify with Patrick about a point he made about if the path to the sustainability of these projects would be if companies are hiring folks to work on these projects, projects that serve many companies? Patrick explains.

[00:38:38] Pia also wonders if the way to join an Open Source project, in a way that is sustainable, is just being hired by a company to work on a project and how is that growing the diversity of our communities and opening the door for more joiners instead of just a few that can be part of those companies? Patrick answers.

Spotlight

[00:41:31] Justin’s spotlight is Show HN. It has great information and it could change your life.
[00:42:01] Eric’s spotlight is a piece of hardware, Dell Precision T7610. It is a screamer!
[00:42:39] Pia’s spotlight is a project called Open Mind, to help protect the user’s data privacy properly.
[00:43:15] Richard’s spotlight is D3, for graphing, and super fun.
[00:43:39] Patrick’s spotlight is FLOSS Desktops for Kids, a program that takes decommissioned hardware and puts it in the hands of underserved districts and the kids there.

Quotes

[00:24:42] “I really think Open Source will take off once all the software companies are gone.”

[00:35:50] “We need to have more joiners of projects than starters of projects. And so, again, there’s no real reason to differentiate any of these.”

Links

Patrick Masson Twitter

Open Source Initiative

Openwashing

US Department of Defense Use of Open Source Software

FLOSS Desktops for Kids

Black Duck Software Survey

Credits

Produced by Justin Dorfman at CodeFund
Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound
Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound
Ad Sales by Eric Berry at CodeFund

Special Guest: Patrick Masson.