Forking Encouraged Folk Programming, Open Source, and Social - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

LambdaMOO > exam rube Rube Goldberg contraption (aka #6498, Rube Goldberg contraption, Rube Goldberg, and contraption) Owned by Aladdin. An incredibly complicated contraption. There is a lever on one side. A sign on the other side says "To run contraption, 'pull lever on contraption'; to add parts to contraption, first 'enter contraption'" Obvious verbs: en*ter rube g*et/t*ake rube d*rop/th*row rube pull <anything> on rube > pull lever on contraption Rosy_Guest pulls down the handle on Rube Goldberg contraption. The lever pulls on a string, releasing a steel ball high up. The ball enters a maze of passages. Somewhere deep inside, the ball hits a switch with an audible click. A large television comes to life, showing re-runs of "Gunsmoke." The sheriff's bullets fly out of the screen A Kung Fu master catches them in his teeeth. The subtitles read "I should've ordered glutinous rice chicken!" He spits out the bullets, which fly toward poor Mel Torme. Sorrow drifts over the land for the death of Mel Torme. ...and now for something completely different... A gigantic puffball bursts, filling the air with spores. A hush falls over the contraption; everything has stopped. A horde of monkeys runs all over the contraption, setting everything back sort of the way it was.

What’s the power here? 1. Create your own code 2. View, clone and modify someone else’s code 3. Free, always-on, ubiquitous hosting 4. Huge array of diverse data sources/objects 5. Code creates new data for use by others

The Server’d Gentry

… begat…

We like: ... but we want: Easy! Features! Social! Ownership! Control!

Cloning on Ning

Developer Cloning User P a Installation c k a g i n g Distribution

The Child App

Timeliner

What makes this possible? • Create your own code • View, clone and modify someone else’s code • Free, always-on, ubiquitous hosting • Huge array of diverse data sources/objects • Code creates new data for use by others

Folk programming = more people in your project

Cloning.

Forking.

FLOSS licenses • View the code • Modify the code • Redistribute the code

There is strong social pressure against forking projects. It does not happen except under plea of dire necessity, with much public self-justification, and requires a renaming. Eric S. Raymond, Homesteading the Noosphere

Hosted?

Hosted? Source Dev Distribution code platform

Hosted? Source Dev Distribution code platform wiki mailing bug tracker lists website

Hosted? Source Dev Distribution code platform wiki mailing bug tracker lists website

Hosted dev environments? • Google App Engine • EC2 • Dreamwidth Dreamhack • Heroku, Kodingen, Reasonably Smart...

Google App Engine

Google App Engine • Free (no cost) • Python or Java • Run your apps on Google’s infrastructure

Google App Engine • Free (no cost) • Python or Java • Run your apps on Google’s infrastructure • BUT... code them on your own

Amazon EC2 • Servers on demand • Pre-configured • Low cost (not quite free) • Any language

Dreamhack • Single project (Dreamwidth) • Shared server • Pre-configured • Free

But can you clone it?

But can you clone it?

But can you clone it?

Huge array of diverse data sources Proximity Openness Queryability

Proximity High Low

Proximity High • in memory Low

Proximity High • in memory • local key/value store Low

Proximity High • in memory • local key/value store • nearby database server Low

Proximity High • in memory • local key/value store • nearby database server • web API Low

Openness High Low

Openness High • US Govt public domain data Low

Openness High • US Govt public domain data • Creative Commons Low

Openness High • US Govt public domain data • Creative Commons • Friendly TOS Low

Openness High • US Govt public domain data • Creative Commons • Friendly TOS • Unfriendly TOS Low

Queryability Low High

Queryability Low • scanned, non-OCR documents High

Queryability Low • scanned, non-OCR documents • text documents High

Queryability Low • scanned, non-OCR documents • text documents • structured data High

Queryability Low • scanned, non-OCR documents • text documents • structured data • well-structured data High

Key points • FLOSS license • Easy cloning • Free, hosted development platform • Huge array of readily-accessed data

FLOSS Cloning Hosted Data Github Y Y N N App Engine ? N Y Y Amazon EC2 ? N Y Y Dreamwidth Y N Y N

• Openly licensed database • ~120M facts about 6.2M topics • Anyone can edit... including schema • Open API

Open Code for Open Data http://freebaseapps.com

*.freebaseapps.com

Open Code

Sharing Code

Sharing Code

Sharing Code

Sharing Code

Sharing Code

Sharing Code

Examples

Data Games

Data Games

Data Games

Data Games