Business

Why the open source way trumps the crowdsourcing way

A while back, I wrote an article about why the term crowdsourcing bugs me. Another thing that drives me nuts? When people confuse crowdsourcing and open source. My friend David Burney wrote an interesting post on this subject a while back highlighting the differences.  » Read more

31 CommentsPosted 15 Apr 2010 by Chris Grams

Upgrading the motivational operating system: A conversation with Daniel Pink

The world of work has changed, but in many ways the model of motivation hasn’t. Are the traditional rewards of today’s organizations up to the challenge of motivating people to complete creative, complex tasks in creative ways? And can the open source way offer inspiration? » Read more

1 CommentPosted 9 Apr 2010 by Jonathan Opp

Community-building tip: surprise is the opposite of engagement

In the interview with Chris Blizzard I posted last week, near the end of the article Chris attributes a phrase to Mozilla CEO John Lilly:

"Surprise is the opposite of engagement."

This may be one of the most simple, brilliant things I have ever heard someone say when it comes to creating engaged, active communities. » Read more

5 CommentsPosted 8 Apr 2010 by Chris Grams

How to tell if your open source project will fail

The new community get-it-done handbook, "The Open Source Way," doesn't seek to be controversial, but with information that's distilled, brief, and to the point, contention is unavoidable. Especially where the book takes a hardline stance on how to act and not act; a stance that is derived from the years of experience of the contributors involved. » Read more

6 CommentsPosted 5 Apr 2010 by Rebecca Fernandez (Red Hat)

Five questions about building community with Chris Blizzard of Mozilla

I've always been a fan of the Mozilla Foundation, and not just because of the Firefox web browser. As catalyst for some of the great communities in the open source world, Mozilla is something of a recipe factory for what to do right when it comes to building community. As it turns out, Mozilla's Director of Developer Relations, Chris Blizzard, is a long time friend of mine. » Read more

2 CommentsPosted 30 Mar 2010 by Chris Grams

How much transparency is too much?

Years ago when I interned at Red Hat, the company had an intranet traffic competition. Employees were encouraged to create or improve their page on the intranet, then post a link that told why you should visit. The person with the most traffic at the end of the week would win a prize.

I don't remember who won—maybe the guy whose link advertised “naked chicks”? But I do remember one entry: a certain software engineer posted his current salary “in the interest of transparency.” It was a surefire way to draw traffic—and spark conversation. » Read more

24 CommentsPosted 25 Mar 2010 by Rebecca Fernandez (Red Hat)

Thoughts from OSBC: What's driving open source acceptance?

Recently I was in the audience for the Open Source Business Conference (OSBC) keynote panel on the future of open source, and part of the discussion was about the rapidly increasing use of open source in both the public and private sector. No one seemed surprised by this fact, but there was some disagreement on the cause. The one thing all the panelists agreed on was this: IT departments are suddenly much more accepting of open source. One of the panelists asked the question, "What is driving IT's acceptance of open source?"

Having worked with IT departments for the better part of two decades--and currently working in the IT department of a major municipality--I knew something the panelists didn't: this is the wrong question. » Read more

2 CommentsPosted 23 Mar 2010 by Barry Klawans

Open Biodiesel

I’ve had a number of career changes. I went from poetry to technology to metal sculpture to the Internet to biodiesel. And I must admit that although I have brushed against open source a number of times, I have had a hard time getting my head around it. » Read more

5 CommentsPosted 23 Mar 2010 by Lyle Estill

Can truly great design be done the open source way?

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about Apple and open innovation. The discussion in the comments about Apple's success, despite their non-openness, was pretty interesting. Greg DeKoenigsberg started things off with this salvo: » Read more

42 CommentsPosted 22 Mar 2010 by Chris Grams

Is Jaron Lanier just a hater, or should we be paying attention?

Last week, my friend Greg DeKoenigsberg posted an article about Jaron Lanier's negative comments regarding open textbooks. At almost very same time, I happened to stumble upon an article Jaron wrote back in 2006 criticizing Wikipedia. » Read more

9 CommentsPosted 16 Mar 2010 by Chris Grams