A non economic bootstrapping approach

--- Mitchell James mejames@...

> open source code. I see software as manipulation of information
> and hardware design as manipulation of information. In that way
> the "Bazaar" method should be just as effective. The most

If I may, I would like to tweek your definitions ever so slightly.
You see, software is manipulation of information that you can run and
test at virtually no additional cost. Typically, it costs quite a
bit more to run and test hardware designs.

--- ESR Quote
> try it. I didn't either. Your nascent developer community needs to
> have something runnable and testable to play with.*>

And, so, you have a bit of a problem. If it costs something to run
and test it, then the nascent developer community cannot play with
it. The story ends. Or does it...

> It seems that starter seeds are useful in many ways. This is a
> difficult problem. I am open to suggestions of where to get the
> pieces to assemble a seed.

Perhaps, in addition to a seed, you also need an environment in which
your nascent developer community can play. That is, if you provide a
tool wherein your developers can freely test their designs against a
simulated orbital environment, perhaps you can continue the story.
Then, take a first shot at your design, it doesn't have to be
complex, just usable. And throw the package "out there".

Sounds like work, but if the "environment" itself were open source,
you might actually get support from real life industry. Such a tool
would be useful to the likes of NASA, ESA and space contractors.
(I'm sure it exists already, but doubtful that there's an open source
version.)

> What else would they rather be doing? Something useful and
> interesting. From my experience there is a lot talent going to
> waste because it has been assigned to activities totally
> unrelated to the person's expertise or interests and nobody is
> going to be fired for working in areas they haven't been assigned
> to in their free time.

I agree with you heartily. Unfortunately, the reality is that many
of these folks do not have the requisite "free time". The business
of keeping food on the table and a roof over our heads and our
families happy tends to take much of our lives.

> While I am unable to conceive of people being paid to work on this,
> not so long ago it was inconceivable that people would be paid to
> work on open source projects directly and not just adjunct to the
> work that they were supposed to be doing.

I hope that you're right. I hope that at some point people will be
paid to work on open source design projects. To me, this is the
crucial part of the sustainability of such a project. But then, my
thoughts are completely devoid of proof. ;-)

Oh, one more thing. If there are any lawyers out there, perhaps you
could discuss the differences in software licensing versus patenting.
It seems to me that you can write code and publish it under GPL (or
whatever license you write) at virtually no cost. You are protected
by copyright law. However, hardware designs, while the works
themselves are protected by copyright law, are not protected by
patent law without large expenditures. This means that if Joe
Developer publishes that robot arm improvement, his publication (the
paperwork) is protected, but the improvement is not. Therefore, it
may be that some company can take this design and patent it. This
risk is an extreme violation of the open source community ethics.
This alone can cause an open source design project to fail. Lawyers?

Chris.