The Cloning of Open Source
The success of the Open Source software development model, with its culture of 'gift giving' has undoubtedly taken the world by storm. It has inspired both the anthropologist and business guru to pontificate endlessly on 'non-hierarchical loose networks collaborating towards common goals'.
Open Source ideas have been cloned and cloned again in different contexts. It has even inspired a generation of criminals and insurgent terror groups, leading to the coining of terms like 'open source cyber crime' and 'open source warfare' which are now appearing in US judicial reviews and learned papers. Apparently individual hackers tweak each other code (for free) and fighters help improve each other weapons and strategies. All very criminal.
But inspiring has it been that Microsoft itself has embraced Open Source and devotes a fair chunk of web space to its commitment to the whole ideal.
And now due to the Law of Unintended Consequences as a result of Mr Obama lifting the ban on stem cell research...
Microsoft has attempted to clone an Open Source Human. In fact none other than my CEO Mark Taylor. Unfortunately it has all gone horribly wrong; Mark Taylor Mk.2 is more doppelganger than clone.
Microsoft's Mark Taylor, spookily, like mine, is a director of a company committed to Open Source and like mine also works in the South East UK. However, one Mark Taylor is responsible for Microsoft product evangelism and the other is responsible for Open Source evangelism.
But now we have a big problem, the lawyers have got involved. Just who owns the IP (intellectual property) that is Mark Taylor?
I decided to interview them to find out who is now the real Mark Taylor.
John Spencer interviews Mark Taylor and Mark Taylor
John: Mark you say you are cooperating closely with Linux distributors to improve interoperability with Windows how do you find the Open Source community to work with?
Mark: Great, I have certainly learned a lot about Windows code, those guys sure can reverse engineer, did you know SAMBA 3 actually works?
John: Er yes I did, put the monkey down please...Mark, you too work with Linux distributors. How do you find them?
Mark: As customer demand grows as Microsoft and Novell continue to build on their long-term commitment to deliver interoperability and IP peace of mind for organizations running mixed-source IT environments.
Mark: Microsoft's patent covenant deal with Novell specifically lays out Samba as an area of interoperability.
John: Of course it does... To you both, I say, do you think that the GUI's of Windows, Linux and Mac PCs are now rather similar with docks and widgets and so on?
Mark: Well yes, I guess so, it was inevitable really, we all have talented coders and the customer demands certain features.
Mark: GUI?
John: Ah ha gotcha, hi real Mark.
Mark: Cloud computing is 'stupidity' that ultimately will result in vendor lock-in and escalating costs.
John: Mark that's a quote from Stallman and you know it
Mark: 'Eat monkeys weirdo'
John: Er. Thank you, Mark and Mark.
This conversation never actually happened and all words attributable to any Microsoft employee were taken directly from the MS web site 2009. Some of the above article is fully made up but not the really scary bits, which are true.
