March 04, 2005
Proprietary software : Open source :: Traditional journalism : Blogging
There is some give and take. Many popular bloggers get cues from the more traditional media formats. They take the news, change it or comment on it, and send out their own news, either by direct syndication or through a newsletter. Some bloggers break their own news, and traditional journalists pick it up, explore it further, and publish their story, electronically or printed.This functions much in the same way that the open-source software market functions. Some developers borrow ideas that proprietary software companies have developed, improve upon them, and distribute them freely. Others, create entirely new concepts for software, which are then borrowed by proprietary software makers, put through their development process, and released to the public.
Whether we like to admit it or not, the battle between open-source and proprietary is really a conversation. It's a conversation that centers on how something could be done and should be done. It's a way of driving the competition crazy, back and forth, back and forth, open source, proprietary, open source proprietary. So, in that way, they have a sense of obligation to one another, combative as it may be, to consistently help one another improve. And we, the consumers of the creations, are all the better for this, friendly competition.
Take the media darling of the moment: Firefox. (I may, admittedly, miss some participants here, but it will give you the gist.) Firefox began with Mosaic, an open-source program for reading documents written in hypertext markup language on the Internet. Voila, the Web. Mosaic was borrowed by Netscape, which created a new Web browser with a series of improvements. To pay for these improvements, Netscape slapped a price on the product. Microsoft borrowed Mosaic and Netscape Navigator to create Microsoft Internet Explorer. While they didn't go open source, they did discount the product to free and they bundled it with their Window operating system. This forced ubiquity, whether you like Microsoft or not, helped usher in the Web age we see today. This made Netscape an acquisition, and the Mozilla engine running the browser an open-source project. Browsers like Opera and Safari borrowed from these predecessors, and created better products for other platforms. And then Firefox took the whole open source thing and ran with it, by borrowing ideas from all the proprietary and open source predecessors. (Phew. As I said, I probably missed some stuff. Feel free to elaborate in the comments.)
And "they," the affiliation of coders who used the Mozilla technology to build the Firefox product, did it so successfully by helping one another improve the product, driving usability and quality assurance to a new high in browser development. They gave it their all, for no money, really. Just for the love. And they have a brilliant product for show for it.
Which brings me to my point. Blogging is open source information creation. Much like its proprietary counterpart. However, unlike its proprietary counterpart, it happens on an individual basis. There is no editor's desk or copywriter's desk. It all happens in one place.
Therefore, as bloggers, we have an obligation -- just as the coders of Firefox had an obligation -- to make blogged information better. To pitch in, as it were. Lend a hand. We may be writers sometimes, but sometimes we need to be clippers. As a community, we need to provide fact-checking, and discourse, and disagreement. We need to trackback like mad. We need to comment, all of the time. We need to provide encouragement and quality assurance (like sending people private notes about typos in their blog).
I guess I'm getting kind of preachy because I've read one too many bloggers as of late who say in their linking practices, "I won't link to you if you have typos in your blogs." (Not linking is fine -- and quite honestly, a great motivator -- but at least comment or email the author as to why you didn't link. And when they fix the problem, give them another chance.) I mean, I don't like typos either. I hate typos when I make them. And I don't like seeing them in other sites, but I can stomach them. There are typos in blogs all the time because we're creating at the speed of thought. I try to go back and edit on a regular basis. When my mind isn't racing. (Like all the times I type "and" for "an", or "a" for "and." Oy.) And I should be more diligent about helping people fix their errors. Yeah, hypocritical. I get it. Quit being part of the problem and offer a solution. I hear you.
Or maybe it's because I see blogging at an important crossroads. It's quickly moving toward the division of proprietary and open source. And unless those who are open source help others improve, we're doomed to fall to a more proprietary system of communication. Proprietary always has more resources and capital at its disposal. But it doesn't always have the love.
In short, we need to help one another improve what it is we're doing. Not get snippy about mistakes.
I'll step down from the pulpit, now. Why don't you take a turn? Comment away. And, as always, I hope you take some time to return.
Proprietary software : Open source :: Traditional journalism : Blogging
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