[thelist] [OT] Gift Culture on the Net: A Rant

[John Meyer]

>I'm not suggesting that one give away the company jewels, or that one 
>labour thanklessly for years, that's not win-win. I am suggesting that if 
>many of us were to look though some of our old work, we might find some 
>useful components, utilities and such that with minimal effort could be a 
>boon to fellow developers, especially the novices.
>
>There are member's here on Evolt who've already chosen this path. Thank 
>you for that. Now it's my turn. Will you be the next?


This almost is along the lines of a rant I was thinking up myself.
Part of the problem that is plaguing down open source is the people who 
take from the community and never give back.  The reason why I got on this 
rant is that there have been so many people out there who I've seen 
demanding _free_ everything, as in free source code, free labor, free isps, 
free help, and refusing to lift a finger to help others.   I've never been 
a part of any sort of large open source project myself, largely because my 
coding skills aren't that good, but I've offered my services as a technical 
writer many times.  Is that pure alturism?  No, because I think I could get 
a lot of good career credits for such work, and given that I'm currently 
unemployed, that would help, but I am willing to help out the same group 
which produces several of the tools that I use, such as OpenOffice.
Maybe we should remind some of the people who don't give as much about 
this.  It would help them understand what we do for the rest of the 
computing community and it might bring some diversity to the open source ranks.

<tip>
Want to break somebody free of Microsoft Office?  Why not use your cable 
connection and burn them a copy of StarOffice or OpenOffice.
</tip>