Animesh Kumar {itsAnimesh}
I'm an IT professional from New Delhi, India. Currently for the most part I work as a Technical Consultant developing Open Source ICT solutions for social and societal inclusion. I'm also pursing PG in Management. Below are the latest updates from a some social networks I subscribe to.
Why be a FOSS Contributor???
Giving things away for the good of others
I find this to be a noble thing to do.. It’s quite generous to help someone… That is the case with commodities and money. How is it different when it is applied to knowledge??
It’s hard for some people to understand why should they be a part of Free and Open Source Software(FOSS)… Well lets put it this way.. With money, if you share it, you lose some part of it. With knowledge however, sharing never decreases it in any amount, and as a result of feedback from those you have shared it with it may increase… This is the core concept of FOSS..
But there are people who look at monetary value of Knowledge… They hide code from others and sell the results, to make profit…. This is what proprietary software is about….
So why would a student of Computer Science share knowledge instead of hiding it from others and make money from it….. There are many reasons… Lets look at some…
- Popularity/Fame – People on the web get to know what code you wrote…
- Feedback from better people – A chance of learning more from better hackers…
- Finding solutions to problems he/she can’t fix…
- Help with documentation and planning….
- Popularity/Fame may result it recruitment…
- Extending the skills acquired to grab fellowships/Summers of Code
- And last but not least… Money…. :)
- Its also about giving something back to the community from which you gained all your knowledge of programming….
So after all these reasons i think its simple to understand:
FOSS = (Gain of knowledge + Money)
WHILE
Proprietary S/W = (ZERO*(Gain of knowledge) + NOT a LOT of money)
Now after all these reasons why the hell would a CS student still want to hide the codes they have written instead sharing them with everyone??? o_O
Hope you get what i mean… Cheers.. :)