O'Reilly Open Source Convention:

How Big is a Community?

I should mention that, as the editor of several Python books (Learning Python and Programming Python), I mostly hung around the Python track. I did keep in touch with the rest of the conference, however, and found the diversity exciting.

The new technology that seemed to interest everyone was XML. All the scripting language tracks had one or more sessions devoted to XML. There was also a Birds-of-a-Feather session on DocBook, an SGML and XML DTD. (Full disclosure requires that I blushingly admit to organizing that BoF, being, as I am, the editor of the upcoming book, DocBook: The Definitive Guide.) This interest in XML shouldn't be surprising: XML has the potential to affect dynamic Web content, web site management, database queries and retrieval, and e-commerce. The languages that parse and otherwise manipulate XML documents cleanly and efficiently will be highly prized over the next few years. If you can figure out a way to buy stock in XML, I recommend you do so. Otherwise, consider doing what the folks are the conference were doing: learn about the potential of XML and how to use it.

Another topic that crossed tracks was bringing Open Source software out of the corporate closet. Everyone knows that Open Source software powers many corporate web sites and back office operations: everyone, that is, except the managers responsible for those sites and operations. One of the constant themes of the conference, and the main theme of the business track, was how to persuade management that the use of Open Source Software is cost-efficient and fiscally prudent, not just easy and fun. Some of the presentations on this topic were similar to ones from previous Perl conferences: for example, Barry Caplin of USWest discussed how a system administrator could persuade management of the value of open source software in that area. But several talks went beyond mere persuasion to discuss how, based on real experience, someone can found a business on Open Source technologies. Perhaps the most heartening of these presentations came from Paul Everitt, CEO of Digital Creations, creators of Zope (Z Object Publishing Environment.) Zope was originally a mixture of open source technology and proprietary code; but when Digital Creations went looking for venture capital, their funder insisted that they adopt the open source model for their entire product (which, naturally, they did). There are now business models for Open Source companies, and some forward-looking venture capitalists understand them. Perhaps by next year's conference, there won't be a need for "persuasion" talks anymore. Perhaps they'll be replaced by discussions of the successful funding models adopted over the year by investors and large corporations.

The most interesting discussions at the Conference, from my point of view, were the panels and presentations on the creation and nurturing of communities. Everyone recognized that there were a number of established technology-based communities represented at the Conference: Perl, Python, Tcl, and Linux, to name a few. Other coummunities based on open principles, such as BSD and the Free Software Foundation, have also thrived over the years. The idea of an Open Source community, however, was largely new this year. Could such a community exist? Would it be too large and too abstract to be of value?

A panel of which I was a member tackled these questions, among others. We seemed to think that the existing technology communities are true communities, and that Open Source was really a confederation of those communities, one that recognized the common interest of all. My panel seemed to feel that the best technical communities seemed to have a "benevolent dictator" (like Larry Wall, Guido van Rossum, and John Ousterhout) who presided over the organized chaos and resolved disputes. (We also saw that some communities, like Apache and PHP, had benevolent juntas.) The key issue for us, though, was the purpose of the community. Without a purpose, a community wouldn't survive for long.

One audience member asked our panel if a technical community could continue to thrive if it didn't explicitly heed the needs of business. Eric Raymond, a member of the panel and the informal cultural anthropologist of the Open Source movement, said that a successful community served its own needs. I understood his point: these communities were volunteer organizations, contributing their work because of an interest in the technology and its application to them. If they pay attention to what someone else wants, that becomes too much like work, and then everyone expects to get paid. Communities thrive on useful, freely given contributions and the proper recognition of such contributions by other members of the community, especially the leader.

I was troubled by Eric's premise, however. It made communities seem so insular, like secret societies or Moose Lodges. It seemed to miss outwardly-directed communities like the Lions Club or Sisters of the Poor. Then I realized how those communities served themselves: they defined their communities to be larger than the contributing members. Mother Theresa saw the whole of humankind as her community, even though only a few took the vows and joined her. Community organizations are the active part of a community, but the community extends beyond them.

Similarly, several organizations at the Conference saw that the principles of the Open Source movement had implications for a larger community than was attending the conference. A group called Open Classroom presented information about an educational environment, based on Open Source software and methods, suitable for the management of schools and other nonprofit organizations. They especially want to reach out to the Third World. Of course, Open Source software is ideal for them because it is free, freely maintained, and suitable for low-cost hardware. Also, Guido van Rossum, creator of Python, talked about a proposal he's working on called Computer Programming for Everybody. His goal is to make the power of free software and the knowledge of programming available to schools and students from the middle school on up to college.

It was a goal of this Conference for these communities to meet contiguously and to cross the boundaries between them to discover their common interests. It's especially heartening, though, to see that some people are already thinking beyond these technical boundaries to the world outside. Some people aren't content to modify code; they want to change the world.

Frank Willison
Editor-in-Chief, Technical Publishing

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