The core value of open source is "people"

Source: Internet
Author: User
Keywords Open source core value the most we are

The value of open source is beyond doubt, the current industry's attitude towards open source is almost one-sided support and affirmation. Although the value of things often comes from the essence, how can we judge the value of open source? is its value reflected in the contribution of the Code, or in other levels?

In terms of the nature of open source, allowing the public to view and access its source code is one of the most powerful and representative features. As the code adopts such a free and open access strategy, it will naturally be regarded as the core value of the open source mechanism.

Line of code

This assumption of open source value also applies to the evaluation and quantification of code that points to available services. For example, social code sharing website GitHub is a typical representative. As a widely acclaimed shared service, GitHub provides information about all the property types of code and how to modify it. In fact, GitHub has recently released a new feature called "Pulse", which can evaluate new features of different categories of code, including how many people have commented on code and how many lines of code are involved in a particular time period. Here, you must have found the point--yes, the focus is on the code. All values are reflected in the code.

Within the community, we often follow this approach to consider the value of open source and evaluate the community through code or products. But there is another problem with such criteria: is the value of open source really reflected in a product that can be copied, modified, and changed at will?

We think that the value of open source mechanism is not derived from the product, the advantage of open source is not only limited to the code. The open source system is a community structure built around a set of common goals, and when the community develops code in a collaborative way, it needs to pay http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/7201.html "> Time costs." Creating a product takes a lot of time--in fact, the Ohloh.net Web site has started noticing this and accounting for the specific duration of a particular project creation process. But this approach can only be said to capture the appearance, but has not really touched the core of open source. This is a good start, but it still ignores some really important factors.

Addition

Yes, the code is an important part of the open source mechanism, and the time invested in the construction and development work of the community cannot be neglected, but there are other points that need to be paid attention to. The essence of open source lies in the participation of "people". The code can be replaced, rewritten, or even removed completely, and none of this will hinder the continued development of the project as a whole. The open source community is built by one person as a participant, they put their time and even youth into, hope to promote the success of the overall macro goals.

And that's the final answer, the real value of open source is those who dedicate their lives to the development of the project. Yes, this is the most precious open source treasure. The open source community must steer the participants ' attention in a cautious manner. If you ignore human factors, the value of the project will decline, the community will collapse and the code will not really work.

Invisible Treasures

If everyone is aware that every participant in the community is the most valuable treasure in the open source project, then the next thing to consider is how to make the wealth grow and expand through proper processing. Obviously, we want to get the most valuable part of the community to be valued. We hope to strengthen the core cohesion of the community so that it can produce a considerable effort beyond its own size. This is the secret of building a strong and vibrant community. The relationship between people--when this relationship can adapt to the needs of the community and promote community unity, the project will certainly thrive. In other words, community culture plays an important role in it.

"Man" is vital.

The next time you find a thriving open source project, be sure to take a moment to examine the community behind it and see how the entire community perceives and appreciates the participants who contributed to it. Keep in mind that the strength of the community depends ultimately on the individual who makes up the system. And please remember that the relationship between people is very important. People and relationships are the core values that the open source community deserves to be valued and protected.

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