Linux Community Magazine

Why and How I Join the Cloud Hype, and So Can You, Free Culture Amigos!
Dec 4, 2010, 23 :02 UTC (1 Talkback[s]) (1510 reads)
(Other stories by HUNG Chao-Kuei)

[ Thanks to Chao-Kuei Hung for this link. ]

"For those of us who have been using GNU/Linux, full-steam cloud computing began with ssh -X or VNC long time ago. For those of us who have contributed to Wikipedia or OpenClipArt or OpenStreetMap, the real benefit of cloud computing lies in the web 2.0 / read-write / prosumer / Pro-Am culture that emphasizes transparency, democracy, freedom of speech, collaboration, etc. Yet recent hypes smelling suspiciously of excessive commercial interest seem to mislead the general public away from the true values of cloud computing and into expensive software products that might lock in users. Lacking an exact and precise source of confusion to debunk the hype, I suggest that fellow advocates of the free culture movement jump on the cloud bandwagon and compete with the hype generator(s?) for the seat behind the steering wheel, popularizing the free culture concepts during the competition, as a peaceful way of fighting the cloud hypes.

"In response to readers' suggestion to look at the cloud hype, I first wrote in May about Microsoft and Taiwan government's collaboration to invest 2.4*10^10 NT dollars smelling badly of corporate greed exploiting public ignorance while feeding on government resources. Seeing that the hype in Taiwan grows stronger and stronger each day, I wrote two blog articles in Chinese ( SaaS and PaaS history) and received some attention. Then I pasted the blog articles into a paper (Chinese) and presented it in one of the many academic cloud conferences. Later Carla Schroder of LinuxToday wrote a piece Keep Your Cloud, I'm a Customer Not a Consumer and I realized that the extensive hype is not limited to Taiwan alone. So I decided that the paper is worth translating into English (with slight modifications), as: "A Brief History of Cloud Computing (Before the Commercial Hype) and Purchasing Suggestions"."

Complete Story

Related Stories:
Censorship of the Internet Takes Center Stage in "Online Infringement" Bill(Sep 23, 2010)
More Than 60 Schools in Kaohsiung City Signed the Software Freedom Manifesto(Sep 15, 2010)
DRM and Other Forces Overriding the Three Laws of Robotics(Aug 04, 2010)
Human Rights Eroding in the Name of Copyright Protection(Jun 09, 2010)
Wiki As an Example to Demystify Cloud Computing(May 28, 2010)
The Likely Victims of This Year's BSA raid: Internet Cafe's and Other Computer(Jan 20, 2010)
Mandatory Use of Open Standards In Hungary(Dec 24, 2009)

View the original article here

"In the past two decades, the open source community has evolved from an obscure grass-roots movement of wild-eyed crusaders, indigent grad students, and spare-time hobbyists to an unprecedented worldwide collaboration of full-time professionals and extraordinarily committed volunteers. We pride ourselves on our openness to new contributors, from any country or social background, and most often describe the power structure of open source projects as a meritocracy. Many of us believe that open source is inherently progressive - a way to level the playing field that operates across all social categories and class boundaries.

"And yet, here it is, the year 2010, and my female friends and I are still being insulted, harassed, and groped at at open source conferences. Some people argue that if women really want to be involved in open source (or computing, or corporate management, etc.), they will put up with being stalked, leered at, and physically assaulted at conferences. But many of us argue instead that putting up extra barriers to the participation of women will only harm the open source community. We want more people in open source, not fewer.

"In this article, we will first explore the current state of harassment in open source through interviews with ten women (including myself) about their experiences at open source conferences. Then we will describe some concrete, simple actions anyone can take to help reduce harassment for everyone"

Complete Story

Related Stories:
An inside look at being a woman in open source(Dec 03, 2010)
Editor's Note: Thank You(Nov 24, 2010)
Real Sexism in the Open Source Community(Aug 11, 2009)
5 Tips for Raising Your Girl Geek(Aug 07, 2009)
File System Evangelist and Thought Leader: An Interview with Valerie Aurora(Jul 15, 2009)
Val Henson meets the Honeywell H316 Kitchen Computer(Dec 01, 2008)

View the original article here