"developers" entries

Inside GitHub’s role in community-building and other open source advances

An interview with Matthew McCullough

In this video interview, Matthew McCullough of GitHub discusses what they’ve learned over time as they grow and watch projects develop there.

Read more…

Open source community collaboration strategies for the enterprise

Key open source considerations for businesses, communities and developers.

OSCON’s theme last year was “from disruption to default.” Over the last decade, we’ve seen open source shift from the shadows to the limelight. Today, more businesses than ever are considering the role of open source in their strategies. I’ve had the chance to watch and participate in the transitions of numerous businesses and business units to using open source for the first time, as well as observing how open source strategies evolve for software businesses, both old and new.

In the view of many, open source is the pragmatic expression of the ethical idea of “software freedom,” articulated in various ways for several decades by communities around both Richard Stallman’s GNU Project and the BSD project. The elements of open source and free software are simple to grasp; software freedom delivers the rights to use, study, modify and distribute software for any purpose, and the Open Source Definition clarifies one area of that ethical construct with pragmatic rules that help identify copyright licenses that promote software freedom. But just as simple LEGO bricks unlock an infinite world of creativity, so these open source building blocks offer a wide range of usage models, which are still evolving.

This paper offers some thinking tools for those involved in the consideration and implementation of open source strategies, both in software consuming organizations and by software creators. It aims to equip you with transferrable explanations for some of the concepts your business leaders will need to consider. It includes:

  • A model for understanding the different layers of community that can form around an open source code “commons” and how you should (and should not) approach them.
  • An exploration of the symbiotic relationship of transparency and privacy in open source communities.
  • An explanation of where customer value comes from in enterprise open source, which illuminates the problems with “open core” strategies for communities and customers.
  • A reflection on the principle that can be seen at work across all these examples: “trade control for influence”

Read more…

A lever is always better than a lone coder

Team Geek authors Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman on coding myths and collaboration.

If we accept that software development is a team activity (it is), the importance of collaboration and communication becomes clear. Team Geek authors Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman discuss the nuances of modern programming in this interview.

The software professional vs the software artist

Developers with a creative streak don't get to opt out of security.

Developer "artists" who think they're too good to address vulnerabilities in operating systems and applications must shoulder blame for insecure systems.

Clojure's advantage: Immediate feedback with REPL

Chas Emerick on how Clojure can make a difference to developers.

REPL is built into Clojure, and you can connect to any running Clojure process and modify and execute code. In this interview, "Clojure Programming" co-author Chas Emerick discusses the possibilities this introduces for Clojure developers.

Clojure’s advantage: Immediate feedback with REPL

Chas Emerick on how Clojure can make a difference to developers.

REPL is built into Clojure, and you can connect to any running Clojure process and modify and execute code. In this interview, "Clojure Programming" co-author Chas Emerick discusses the possibilities this introduces for Clojure developers.

Want to get ahead in DevOps? Expand your expertise and emotional intelligence

Kate Matsudaira on the changes developers face.

In this interview, Decide VP of engineering Kate Matsudaira discusses how and why developer jobs are changing. She also offers four practical strategies for communicating with non-geeks.

Developer Week in Review: Everyone can program?

There's a big gap between easy-to-use tools and competent programming.

Apple is the latest in a long line of entities that want to bring software development to the masses. Here's why that idea, in general, is doomed to fail.

Developer Week in Review: Early thoughts on iBooks Author

The impact of iBooks Author, free vs usability, and Microsoft wants developers to level up.

It looks like Apple plans to totally disrupt yet another industry, but is that a good thing? Richard Stallman puts free above usability, and Microsoft adds incentives to Visual Studio — but some of them encourage the wrong behaviors.

Top Stories: January 2-6, 2012

Welcome to the feedback economy, a guide for empowered patients, and 3 developer topics that will define 2012.

This week on O'Reilly: Alistair Croll explained why the information economy is giving way to the feedback economy, Fred Trotter examined the epatient movement, and we looked at the three big stories that will shape the developer world in the months ahead.