Tinkerers as a source of adding value...

Going after people that tinker with products has been proven to be impossible. They always find a way to make whatever product they choose to tinker with, work in ways that the original manufacturer or producer never intended it to do.

In some cases, they actually make it work better than it did out do the box.

So, why waste resources going after those tinkerers when they could be used of a source of knowledge and hands on experience to make those products better. The value that they bring to the table, is the insight they have to see how they can make things work better. Or, to add functionalities that for one reason or another the original creator didn't think of.

Shooting them down is a case of shortsightedness. Tinkerers are an asset, since they have all what it's needed to help you accelerate the development of your product in a much faster way. And the feedback they give back is, more often than not, more useful than the feedback of the average user.

Not only that, they can be directed more easily to a goal. If they believe in that goal, they can do great things for your product.

Bring them in, let them do their magic. You'll be surprised by the amount of value that they bring in.

Reach out to your community of users...

I can't find a reasonable explanation on why software companies won't open themselves, and seek to use the experience or expertise of the people that form the community of users.

They are losing more than what they could be winning by keeping them out. Not only on profits, but most importantly on expertise that they could tap on to make breakthroughs that are difficult to get from people working in the company itself.

Mainly because people on the outside have a different view, and can bring it to the table. Users can see things than developers inside can't, since users have a completely different viewpoint. From it, they can see things that insiders can't just because they are in a position to actually see that part of the work flow.

Not interacting with the communities that use your software can lead you too loose vital insight on how to better develop it. Instead of trying to cut people from making any change to the software, be the one who leads those efforts and make them be done in a way that's useful for the whole community of users.

If you do so, then you can focus on the core functionalities of the software while making it more safe and robust. Be the one that sets the standards of what it takes to develop add ons or build capabilities that you are not interested or the majority of the users don't want to have.

If you do, you'll find that the resources of your company will be used more efficiently. And the community that builds around you, will take care of those things that you can't take care off for whatever reason.

Done right, it's a win-win solution.

Begin to add value...

I've wonder often when companies will stop complaining about how others do things the same way they do, and start competing with each other by adding value to the products they bring to the market.

As a whole, we should be focusing on building free and open standards on which we all can work on and modify as we want without fear of doing anything illegal. By doing so, both companies and individuals benefit from having a platform that isn't dependent on the wimps and fortunes of a single player or vendor.

By having a free and open standards, there will be true freedom to choose that software or service that best suits our needs without having to worry about if the software will actually work.

This will open companies, and other vendors, to actually work on adding value to their  software. To make their software work better, or do things in a certain way that better suit the needs of their clients. They'd be able to really focus on making great products to their clients, and to work on giving a better service to users of their products.

What's the use of having the best and greatest standard, if it doesn't work as the users need it to work or it doesn't really add any value to work of the people who use it.

I really want, and love to see, vendors competing with software that truly add value to the work of their users. All the while working on free and open standard, to which we all have access to study and add value too.

If we work together, the added value should come sooner rather than latter.

Why I made the move to Linux...

Along the reason I've moved to using Ubuntu as my OS, is that on Windows and Mac I felt that the path they are taking is one on which I had to take whatever Microsoft and Apple wanted to give me.

While on the Linux, I had the choice to pick the distro which configuration better suited what I need and want on my desktop. And in my case it was Ubuntu, since it fits my needs and how I expect my OS to work. On top of that, Ubuntu is a lot more stable than Windows ever was and far easier to configure and use.

My machine is also faster to startup, and to load the software that use. While on Windows 7 I had to wait about 5 minutes for it to start, with Ubuntu it takes about 2-3 minutes to get there. And I use the same machine, so it's a question of how the OS loads.

Not only that, important update and patches on Ubuntu come regularly. Which help keep my system running safe and keep making my computer work better, while all the problems I've come across have been hiccups that where easily fixed with a quick Google search.

On the year I've been using Ubuntu on the daily basis, I haven't come across a mayor problem with it.

Therefore, I highly recommend Ubuntu to everyone who wants to run a safe and stable OS. Specially that just works, and you want to be free from impositions from third parties that believe that they know better than you. With the added bonus that it's really easy to use, and you don't want to get your hands too dirty with on the technical side.

Changes need to be made post haste..

I feel appalled with the idea of even thinking that copyrighting APIs can be a good idea, even if they are just suggesting it.

After all APIs are a set of naming and structure frameworks used to code commands to an intended for a piece of software. Without this command, most software wouldn't run correctly making it worst than useless.

Since the coding certain commands so that the software responds on a specific way, is basically the same every time you have to issue the said command many APIs end up looking pretty much the same way.

Add the fact that when you are coding for the same platform than many others, you're using the same naming and structures frameworks. So, the odds are pretty good that someone already used your API in someway or another to solve the same problem. If that person was able to copyright that particular API, everyone who follows is going to infringe the copyright no matter what they do.

This would make making any new product or service basically inviable, since you can't solve any basic problem without having to pay royalties if the copyright holder decides to license the API to you. If he decides you're a threat, and denies you the use of it he could legally close you by using the copyright law as a weapon.

If governments are really concern to help small and medium companies compete, they need to make sure that copyright and patent laws can be used as a tool to drive them out of the market by bigger companies have demonstrated they'll do so without a second thought.

Let the companies with the best products and services win, not the ones with the most money to pay for the best lawyers.

Embrace tinkers...

I've been wondering for sometime now, how long will take for many companies to stop trying to keep people from tinkering with the software and hardware they produce.

It would be most useful for them to harness the work of the tinkers that work on their products, and use that work to further the development of those products. They should be working more like the lead of a greater project, by doing so they can receive benefits that would be otherwise lost.

Other benefits from embracing the work of tinkers, is that they'll be better salesmen for their products because they know them just as well as the engineers and designers who originally work on the project. And the tinkers are more trusted by the people around them, than a representative of the company would ever be.

Not only that, tinkers can actually help to spot and fix any kind of problem that wasn't seen during the development process in a more effective and timely manner. Thus freeing in-house developers to do other functions that require better equipment, or is more important to the company.

Tinkers are not an enemy, they are a valuable ally that can give a lot more back that he or she can take away.

Don't be afraid to tinker...

Linux, and FLOSS in general, have benefited a lot from people tinkering around the software they use to make it work as they want it to.

From time to time, great things come from those changes. Some don't bring important things, but actually lead to other things that end up being great. The important thing is to actually tinker on the things you believe you can improve, or change to get to work in the way you think they should.

The reality is that it's really hard to gauge the impact of any particular change, but we won't ever know if that change isn't made. And it's always better to know that the change doesn't work, than not knowing that it does.

And who knows, it might not work as you thought it would and still be of great use. That's why it's important to try out the changes you think might work.

It's also important to share and exchange ideas with others that work in the same area that you do, they might have ideas or technical information that you might find useful and put to use to be better able to work on what you love to. Also, by doing so the scope of your project might grow or have a better chance to actually workout as you want it to.

By tinkering your software, and hardware, to make it work or look as you want it to there are a lot of things you can learn. Not only that, there are a lot of good friend to be made by working in projects, or sharing your results, with others.

So, go and tinker away at your hearth content.

The power of community...

The most important part of the FLOSS movement are the communities that work on each of the projects that make FLOSS as a whole.

Without them, FLOSS wouldn't be anywhere close to where it is today. The success that FLOSS has had over the years comes from the people that come together and form each of the communities that work on make their project work. While there have been failures, because they are part of the process of learning how to make projects move forward.

That's why I take part of using and bringing other people attention to FLOSS, because of the sense of being part of something bigger that actually makes a difference. People working on FLOSS projects help to all move forward, by finding new or better ways to do things.

With FLOSS, it's main assets are its communities and the people contributing in them.

This is why I can't make sense of companies and governments keeping people to come together into communities to work any particular projects. The benefits that come from reaching to communities working outside your walls of your company far outweigh most of the pitfalls that you might encounter, most of people just want to make their favorite project work better that it currently does.

Most often than not, communities police themselves in a very efficient manner. The lead group, or company, should give direction to the project and set the main rules of conduct.

Use the power of the communities to make the best of the projects you want to make happen. And more importantly, let all who want to help join.

Security on open standards...

Another benefit of open standards, is that it's more secure that closed ones. Mainly because they can be reviewed by any particular individual or group.

This makes it harder to put malicious code into the platforms that work with the standard, since there are many eyes making sure that there are no code that could harm, or hinder, the use safe use of the standard.

Other reason is that any vulnerability can be found and patched a lot more rapidity. Since the one who found any given vulnerability can code the patch, it makes the process a lot faster. While making the whole system a lot safer.

And since no particular interest controls the standard, it's a lot harder to put into it anything that could spy or remotely control the users machines that work with the standard. In the case it does slip through, the process to alert of the existence of such a code can be made known by the one who found it. It also can be removed a lot faster.

The security of the open standards not only rest on the fact that it can be studied and corrected by a larger number of people, but by the fact that it's on the best interest of everyone to be kept that way.

So, open standards have an advantage on security.

Not just for business...

I've seen several times how open source is good for business, and while I do agree with them fully there is an aspect that there isn't much written about. It's the fact that open source is also great of the average user as well.

The average user gets all the benefits that the businesses do when they switch to open source. They get a better software for a better price, on hardware the user will be able to use for far longer than with proprietary software. With the plus that that hardware will be able to keep using the latest version of whichever OS the user chooses, with all the benefits that comes with this.

Also, the user gets to control what happens on their hardware. No longer the user has to blindly accept whatever the vendor of proprietary software chooses to give to her or him. If the current distro, or program, takes a turn that the user doesn't agree with or wants to take, the user can more readily jump to another distro o program that does what what the user wants how the user wants to do so.

The user is free to use his software as she or he wants to with much less restrictions with open source software than with proprietary software, which gives the user a lot more flexibility when comes on how to set up her or his system.

As such, the system truly becomes the users system.

Not only that, the support when something goes wrong with the system is much wider with open source. There is a large community on which the user can fall back to if the need arises, and help can come from outside the vendor or distribution from which the software came from. The user is not dependent on the vendor for help.

Open source is full of benefits for anyone who fully embraces it.

We should be building open standards...

I've being thinking about how we came to have a system that tends to focus on locking-in users, instead of building open platforms that allow users to collaborate easily with each other.

Instead of making technologies that bring people together, it seems that some are death set on keeping people reaching to others.

This, of course, is unacceptable. If we want to move forward, it's better to do so with as many people as possible on board as possible. Doing so is beneficial to individuals, as much as it is to humanity as large. We need to have as many people working together to solve common problems, and to help each other to make things happen.

We need the skills and knowledge that everyone can bring to the table. Locking in users is detrimental for people at both sides of the divide, since both are losing from not being able to reach for the expertise of the people on the other side with ease.

This is why we need open standards to help us build a better place for all. We should be able to easily share knowledge with others as we need to, and third parties shouldn't be able to interfere with the free flow of knowledge between people. It's our right to do so, and we need to be able to do so if we hope to solve the problems we face.

Any system that interferes with the free flow of knowledge is plain wrong, since it slows down or stops the search for solutions that could save lives or improve dramatically the quality of life of millions.

So, lets make sure that no company, government or group can do anything to hinder our right to share with others knowledge.