Exclusive Fedora Interview, - With project leader, Paul W. Frields

[Greg Dekoenigsberg]

On Sat, 24 May 2008, Jeff Spaleta wrote:

> 2008/5/24 Scott Thistle <scott at tekkie.org>:
>
>> I just don't understand why a lot of companies and papers think that 
>> distros are pitted against each other. The single most aggravating 
>> statement I ever hear is when a company's #1 goal is "Increase 
>> shareholder value". Wow. I hate those three words.
>
> It's because for the traditional software 'marketplace' it is about
> competition. And the technical laypress are deeply rooted in the
> experience of that traditional way of how software is developed and
> marketed.  The machinery or software review is geared around things
> you can purchase in a store, so you see open source software reviews
> is approached  like its a console game title or an electronic gadget
> or even a car.
>
> We speak a completely different language, we speak a language of
> 'coopetition.'  I think Paul's imagery of a community of farmers
> helping each other out at a barn raising, has a lot of appeal.  There
> are probably some other farming analogies that we could use in talking
> points. Things like long term sustainability versus short term yields,
> which
>
> The laypress by and large don't understand how 'coopetition' is meant to 
> work, or what sustainability means, or where the real value in the open 
> source process lies...in the ability to contribute beyond laying down 
> cash on a counter.  Its a disruptive concept for the software 
> marketplace, and if Fedora's marketteers do one thing, and one thing 
> only.. I'd want it to be to educate the laypress about coopetition and 
> the power of contribution.
>
> It will take a multi-release effort before we see a substantial change 
> in the laypress.  I hope some of the talking points this time around are 
> remembered by particular people in the laypress, so we see the quality 
> of their questions improve next time around.  I'm thinking about 
> creating a methodology so I can rank particular laypress 'journalists' 
> are doing in terms of understanding concepts like coopetition and 
> sustainability.

It's the difference between Software Industry and Software Society.

Read Michael Tiemann's brilliant paper:
http://people.redhat.com/tiemann/STS-Forum-Tiemann-2006.pdf

Our goal at Red Hat, and the goal that participants in the Fedora Project 
share with us, is to put our money where our mouth is, and lead with 
Radical Collaboration and Radical Transparency.

--g