Re: Exclusive Fedora Interview, - With project leader, Paul W. Frields

2008/5/24 Scott Thistle <scott(a)tekkie.org&gt;: It's because for the traditional software 'marketplace' it is about competition. And the technical laypress are deeply rooted in the experience of that traditional way of how software is developed and marketed. The machinery or software review is geared around things you can purchase in a store, so you see open source software reviews is approached like its a console game title or an electronic gadget or even a car. We speak a completely different language, we speak a language of 'coopetition.' I think Paul's imagery of a community of farmers helping each other out at a barn raising, has a lot of appeal. There are probably some other farming analogies that we could use in talking points. Things like long term sustainability versus short term yields, which The laypress by and large don't understand how 'coopetition' is meant to work, or what sustainability means, or where the real value in the open source process lies...in the ability to contribute beyond laying down cash on a counter. Its a disruptive concept for the software marketplace, and if Fedora's marketteers do one thing, and one thing only.. I'd want it to be to educate the laypress about coopetition and the power of contribution. It will take a multi-release effort before we see a substantial change in the laypress. I hope some of the talking points this time around are remembered by particular people in the laypress, so we see the quality of their questions improve next time around. I'm thinking about creating a methodology so I can rank particular laypress 'journalists' are doing in terms of understanding concepts like coopetition and sustainability. -jef