tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719550.post7844256739943375431..comments2023-11-13T04:55:40.769-05:00Comments on Tuttle SVC: The Open Source Community is UsTom Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08577165613934129833noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719550.post-42825252147207454512010-01-25T16:40:08.338-05:002010-01-25T16:40:08.338-05:00I suppose one way to try to summarize my point wou...I suppose one way to try to summarize my point would be to say that Mark's rhetorical stance vis a vis open source actually undermines the potential value of his work connected to open source software. If you respect Mark Guzdial and didn't know much about open source and read his post you'd think "Oh, I'd better not get involved with open source; Mark has a pretty negative attitude toward it." Thus people sympathetic to his concerns would be less likely to get involved in making open source communities reflect Mark's values. AND, Mark actually seems to have no real problems working with, using, teaching, etc. with open source software.<br /><br />The fact of the matter is I find the attitude toward open source by the "learning sciences" and academia in general to be incomprehensible, so I guess it isn't that surprising that my attempts to understand what they're trying to do.<br /><br />The backstory here, which I don't want to open up full force because frankly, I've got other stuff I should be doing, is that Mark is complaining about "country club" projects when the most closed, clubby open source (licensed) projects are the academic ones, by far. Look at Scratch -- they wrote an NSF grant promising an open collaborative process, never made the source readily available, and generally made it clear that once they had the money they had no interest in taking contributions from outside their academic circle.<br /><br />I don't have trouble with their process, but I do have trouble with them taking government money on false pretenses, and in that context I do have a problem with Mark, who was an advisor to Scratch and is aware of this issue, slamming volunteer projects which are at least <i>trying</i> to be open, but perhaps failing.Tom Hoffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08577165613934129833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719550.post-63454412688761748712010-01-25T15:54:32.080-05:002010-01-25T15:54:32.080-05:00Not sure of the point you're making, but Mark ...Not sure of the point you're making, but Mark Guzdial is clearly not only very bright, but he is a good guy who has contributed much on behalf of computer science education, women and educational progress.<br /><br />He may be one of the handful of people in the open-source community who can not only cut code, but teach others to do it AND also understand the educational value in doing so for learners of all ages.Garyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16005284607047954745noreply@blogger.com