[Novalug] Explaining tech to the non-tech minded

[gregory pryzby]

The best way is to describe it in the frame of reference of the person
asking.

So for an architect, they work as a team to design and then open it to
review of peers, etc. There is work amoung peers and things are not
kept secret.

Same for medical papers. There is research, paper, review, update,
review, etc. 

Eric S Raymond gave a very good talk on it in the past.

Unfortunately my google-ness is failing me (that and my daughter is
calling). Hopefully someone can find the talk and share.

On Tue, Nov 21, 2006 at 05:44:00PM -0500, Megan Larko wrote:
> Hello Folks,
> 
> As a member of the Tux.Org Board of Directors (BoD) I happened to receive the 
> following email message with a query of how to explain FOSS cooperation and 
> development to the non-technically or business minded.
> 
> I'm coming to the List for suggestions/analogies/pictograms/anything.
> 
> I am also reprinting part of the letter below for your perusal.
> 
> megan 
> 
> -------------------  Reprint  ----------------------------
>  I think it would be very informative and
> interesting if Tux.org could graphically illustrate how a community of users
> (and corporations alike) collaborate to develop and evaluate open source
> software. It strikes me that very few policymakers understand the actual
> mechanics of how an open source community works -- from software
> repositories, to Concurrent Version Systems (CVS) tools, to patch
> contribution, to Peer Review, and collaboration. The organic aspect of the
> project.
> 
> For the layperson, this grassroots process probably seems incomprehensible.
> But, I suspect that you could create a presentation that quickly -- and
> hopefully graphically -- goes through the steps that is at the heart of the
> open sources collaborative process -- which results in software.
>gave a very good talk on it in the past.

--
greg pryzby                              greg at pryzby dot org
fingerprint: 8A1A DB90 869F 5DD1 D6E9 EEB6 C156 6B04 849F A86F
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
Url : http://calypso.tux.org/pipermail/novalug/attachments/20061121/ebec810b/attachment-0002.pgp