Evan Lazaro
Having well defined criteria for what is encompassed by the term Open Source is important to help grow the community and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Two possible suggestions for How To Answer Questions in a Helpful Way could be:
- Use clear language and correct grammar and punctuation. An answer is not very useful if the person reading cannot fully understand what you are trying to get across.
- Back up any detailed explanations / claims with links to other sites which support what you are saying. The reader is more likely to take your answer seriously and will also have another resource to look at if they still don't fully understand.
This story took me aback with how close to home it hits - an RPI student who tinkering with technology is so commonplace and innocent it is hard to believe such strong legal action would be taken against someone for this. Furthermore, while I previously had some understanding of the shortcomings of our legal system, this story nevertheless shocked me with how much power and control large companies have in the current system. It is frustrating knowing how helpless individuals are in these situations and how they are forced into these "mafia-like" choices.
Relating back to the title and theme of the book, what happened to Jessie for acting as a medium for the transfer of free things is pretty indicative the perspective of many people in our society - nothing is completely free. On one hand I do sort of agree with this, however the Open Source movement and the notion of releasing one's work for the greater good is still very much worth pursuing.
Another main takeaway from this story is to be cautious of the power of technology. As people become more and more interconnected in ways never previously imagined, it can be dangerous to be on the leading (or bleeding) edge. This is especially true when these new forms of technology undermine large and longstanding industries, and companies in these industries fight vigorously to remain relevant (ex taxi companies losing lots of revenue to uber/lyft).
I recently became the chair of the Web Technologies Group, a committee of the Student Senate which creates Open Source solutions for problems faced by Student Government and the student body. Some of these projects include the Shuttle Tracker, Student Government Elections, Petitions, Senate Survey, and the WebTech website.
Working on one of these projects seems pretty ideal as they are already in production and any work done will directly benefit students, will provide good practice taking on an already existing project, use technologies I am interested in learning, and are likely to continue for years to come. In particular, the Petitions website has become quite outdated, and some members of RCOS have been working on a new version of the site, so a possible project could be to finish this new site and deploy it.
However, I will still browse the other Open Source projects and see if any interest me as well.