DiBona, Ockman & Stone and Raymond

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Reading:

Open Sources:

• "Acknowledgments"
• "Introduction" (DiBona, Ockman \& Stone)
• "A Brief History of Hackerdom" (Raymond)
• "Contributors"

Questions:

1. Who are these people? How do you suppose they were selected? Both the introduction and Raymond's history discuss a variety of populations who were party to the development of software in general, "free" software, and the notion of Open Source. How many of these populations are represented here?
   Commentary: Who are these people?
2. What distinguishes "Open Source" from "Free Software"? Is either a subset of the other?
   References: Open vs Free?
3. DiBona, Ockman and Stone claim that "science is ultimately an Open Source enterprise", but they introduce this idea with a discussion of tensions between access and secrecy in the context of early DNA research. Why was Watson reluctant to share his and Crick's model with Pauling? Where did the data that their model was based on come from? What happened to the source of that data?
   Commentary: Open Source science?
4. What is the NIH Public Access policy? How does the distinction between "Open" and "Free" play out in this realm? What parallels and contrasts do you see with respect to software?
   Commentary: NIH?
5. How much of Raymond's historical account is first person? Where was he during the various periods he discusses and what was he doing?
   Commentary: Raymond?
6. Who produced the PDP machines? What has become of them?
   Commentary: PDP?
7. Who sponsored the development of ARPAnet? Who actually built the hardware it was based on? What has become of them?
   Commentary: ARPAnet?
8. Where are Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie now?
   Commentary: Thompson and Ritchie?
9. DiBona, Ockman and Stone cite the purchase of Netscape by America Online as the end of the era of spectacular Internet IPOs. This book was actually written a few years before the spectacular dot-com collapse. How has Open Source faired in the subsequent shake out?
   Commentary: Modern era?
10. Additional questions here