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Raleigh, NC
Ruth Suehle is the community leadership manager for Red Hat's Open Source and Standards team. She's co-author of Raspberry Pi Hacks (O'Reilly, December 2013) and a senior editor at GeekMom, a site for those who find their joy in both geekery and parenting. She's a maker at heart who is often behind a sewing machine creating costumes, rolling fondant for an excessively large cake, or looking for the next great DIY project.
Authored Comments
Perhaps you noticed that I mentioned Vocaloid isn't actually open source software? I think it's an interesting example--one of many--of exactly what you're talking about.
You're right. The word "open" is leaking everywhere. And I hope if you're ever at a conference where I'm speaking, you'll come hear me say just that. In fact, at SXSW, I explained in my own talk how I feel the term "open source" is losing meaning, and I have way more examples than just Vocaloid. That's why I (and other writers on opensource.com) are starting to lean towards discussing the *principles* behind the idea, like community and transparency. Those words have a lot more meaning, and they have meaning to people outside of software.
But unlike you, I don't see this shift as darkness and doom for openness. Rather, I see it as a sign that the world beyond software is recognizing the benefits of openness. They don't quite have the right language for it yet, so they're latching onto ours. And that's OK. Language evolves. (As a lifelong grammatical prescriptivist, that pains me to say, but it's true.) The end result--where more people are sharing and being open--is what's really important.
I think you're not seeing a difference between "promoting" and "reporting."