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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
Wait a minute while I look around the virtual room looking for answers...
Oh, right. The open source community.
It's a meritocracy, sure. But few large projects are without any hierarchy at all, even if it's an informal, unstated one.
And it's pretty cynical to assume that all formal, corporate hierarchies work like this scenario. That's not to say it never happens, because I know I've been in John's position. But I think that a company that manages to be both successful at its business and at working the open source way can do both.
No argument. It is hard to let go. The numbers of people who rely on a variety of Google services is hardly trivial. And in some cases, the alternatives are significantly less appealing. That would actually make a really great post for someone to write--a complete list of the Google products and services and better alternatives, much like existing lists of proprietary software and open alternatives.
I also agree that "don't be evil" has been eroding for quite some time. But it's nice to not always be 100% cynical. And I don't think it was always simply propaganda. But greed is a mighty force.