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Raleigh, NC
Rebecca Fernandez is a Principal Program Manager at Red Hat, leading projects to help the company scale its open culture. She's an Open Organization Ambassador, contributed to The Open Organization book, and maintains the Open Decision Framework. She is interested in the intersection of open source principles and practices, and how they can transform organizations for the better.
Authored Comments
"[Open source contributors] are at their most efficient while building hidden information plumbing layers, such as Web servers. They are hopeless when it comes to producing fine user interfaces or user experiences. If the code that ran the Wikipedia user interface were as open as the contents of the entries, it would churn itself into impenetrable muck almost immediately. The collective is good at solving problems which demand results that can be evaluated by uncontroversial performance parameters, but it is bad when taste and judgment matter."
I think that's a bit unfair. Has open source made something that rivals the Apple user experience? Ok, probably not. But it's provided a lot more attractive and useful stuff than just "information plumbing layers."
...that anyone would rail against open textbooks. Look at the current fiasco with Texas dictating the history and science textbooks for children across the country, and basically trying to re-write history through a partisan lens and alter science to fit a religious agenda.
Seems to me we could all benefit from a bit more collaboration and transparency in the textbook market.