6 ms·

Can you list a few benefits of releasing custom coded solutions to the public? The only one I can see is building culture/name for yourself (which I don't cons

Can you list a few benefits of releasing custom coded solutions to the public? The only one I can see is building culture/name for yourself (which I don't consider a trivial thing), but I can't think of anything else.

sritchie 13y ago
I built a number of those open source libraries (Summingbird, Storehaus, Algebird, etc) - often more than 50% of our contributions would come from outside Twitter. Scalding has far more outside activity than inside, where a few talented folks are holding down the fort.
- x5315 13y ago
  Sam, you don't hold down a fort. You just hold it. Forts don't fly away. <3.
  - sritchie 13y ago
    A scala type hierarchy DOES feel a bit like a pillow fort on a blustery day.
  - brdrak 13y ago
    > <3 You probably mean this [1], but all I see is this [2]. What's wrong with me? [1] http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%3C3&defid=1104084 http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%3C3&defid=11... [2] http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%3C3&defid=1333955 http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%3C3&defid=13...
IgorPartola 13y ago
Sure. Your grateful users might add a feature you didn't have time for. Or they might find a security issue and send you a patch as a part of responsible disclosure. Or they might start hacking on your codebase and actually do something cool. Then you can hire them/buy them out, turning your codebase into a nice recruiting tool. Think about this: if Twitter open sources 100% of their code, what would change? Would Twitter clones pop up all over the place? No, because Twitter is the software + infrastructure + name. Most companies think that their code contains some type of secret sauce that makes it special. In reality that's not true. Sure, Google may hide their exact PageRank algorithm, but they don't need to hide their web server code. Or their indexing algorithm. Companies like Twitter are even better for this: they do absolutely nothing that's really proprietary. For an example of this on a much smaller scale look at TheTVDB (http://thetvdb.com/ http://thetvdb.com/), their entire site source is OSS, yet there are no clones.
- d23 13y ago
  For some companies where the barrier to entry is very high or requires a lot of market share to compete, this may be true. But for others where the investment in actually building the thing was the only barrier, giving the code out to the world can be a terrifying prospect.
  - IgorPartola 13y ago
    You are right, it's not always appropriate. However, in most cases, it's just fine. Here's a list of companies that I think could open up at least 95% of their code: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Tesla/Ford/GMC/Toyota/BMW/any car manufacturer, Apple, Home Depot/Walmart/Safeway/any retailer, Mint, Twitter, Facebook, Google, and many more.
briandoll 13y ago
http://tom.preston-werner.com/2011/11/22/open-source-everything.html http://tom.preston-werner.com/2011/11/22/open-source-everyth...

sritchie 13y ago

I built a number of those open source libraries (Summingbird, Storehaus, Algebird, etc) - often more than 50% of our contributions would come from outside Twitter. Scalding has far more outside activity than inside, where a few talented folks are holding down the fort.

x5315 13y ago
Sam, you don't hold down a fort. You just hold it. Forts don't fly away. <3.
- sritchie 13y ago
  A scala type hierarchy DOES feel a bit like a pillow fort on a blustery day.
- brdrak 13y ago
  > <3 You probably mean this [1], but all I see is this [2]. What's wrong with me? [1] http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%3C3&defid=1104084 http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%3C3&defid=11... [2] http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%3C3&defid=1333955 http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%3C3&defid=13...

IgorPartola 13y ago

Sure. Your grateful users might add a feature you didn't have time for. Or they might find a security issue and send you a patch as a part of responsible disclosure. Or they might start hacking on your codebase and actually do something cool. Then you can hire them/buy them out, turning your codebase into a nice recruiting tool. Think about this: if Twitter open sources 100% of their code, what would change? Would Twitter clones pop up all over the place? No, because Twitter is the software + infrastructure + name. Most companies think that their code contains some type of secret sauce that makes it special. In reality that's not true. Sure, Google may hide their exact PageRank algorithm, but they don't need to hide their web server code. Or their indexing algorithm. Companies like Twitter are even better for this: they do absolutely nothing that's really proprietary. For an example of this on a much smaller scale look at TheTVDB (http://thetvdb.com/ http://thetvdb.com/), their entire site source is OSS, yet there are no clones.

d23 13y ago
For some companies where the barrier to entry is very high or requires a lot of market share to compete, this may be true. But for others where the investment in actually building the thing was the only barrier, giving the code out to the world can be a terrifying prospect.
- IgorPartola 13y ago
  You are right, it's not always appropriate. However, in most cases, it's just fine. Here's a list of companies that I think could open up at least 95% of their code: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Tesla/Ford/GMC/Toyota/BMW/any car manufacturer, Apple, Home Depot/Walmart/Safeway/any retailer, Mint, Twitter, Facebook, Google, and many more.

briandoll 13y ago

http://tom.preston-werner.com/2011/11/22/open-source-everything.html http://tom.preston-werner.com/2011/11/22/open-source-everyth...