Bruce Perens Voted off SPI Board

An anonymous reader writes "ComputerWorld is reporting that open source evangelist Bruce Perens has been ousted from the board of Software in the Public Interest. Even though he founded the organization he said it was time to move on, stating that he probably shouldn't have run but just couldn't let it go. It seems that for the time being Perens in content to focus on the truly important things, like watching his son grow and making time for his family. I just hope that he isn't gone for too long."

Miswording

[dshaw858]

It sounds like he was forcefully ejected from his own board, but the story leads me to believe that this is what he wanted- even the slashdot summary states that he had said it was "time to go" and that he wanted more time with his family and son... so why was he 'ousted'? Or perhaps I'm simply reading something wrong...

What is SPI?

[Anonymous Coward]

Could someone give a short description of SPI? How is it different from other similar organisations? What does it do that these organisations don't?

Re:You're Fired!

[Bruce Perens]

if this guy is most famous (hey, I'm paraphrasing TFA) for getting fired, then what's his next move?

Hm. Perhaps I should be deported or something :-) Maybe tried for treason. I'll think of something :-)

It's somewhat frustrating that internal conflict of Open Source always makes more news than the outward-facing work that I'm doing. There have been much more important issues that I was unable to get Slashdot to cover.

Bruce

Re:You're Fired!

[Bruce Perens]

IT's NOT NEWS (and much other justified ranting)

I guess it's a human-interest story.

I have this self-imposed job of helping to ease the future course of Open Source by attempting to solve problems in its way like the software patent issue. A big part of that is being an "opinion leader", which is writing stuff that other people read and, hopefully, agree with. Getting attention for such stuff means courting the press like Computerworld (which did not create the cited article but is carrying a LinuxWorld Online story) and Slashdot. The press is capricious. They don't cover what I want them to cover. They must be pandered to and babied, cajoled, you get the picture. Being a notable person whom they will recognize and cover - regardless of the content - is something you have to do just to get the real issues covered. That doesn't mean we have to like it.

Thanks

Bruce

Re:No more comments from Bruce, please

[Bruce Perens]

You're also welcome to call me at 510-375-0820 if you want more truth! I am in Norway at the moment, so watch the time zone. That's a GSM phone, Sourcelabs will pick up the bill.

How the hell can rumours spread when the darned subject PUBLISHES HIS PHONE NUMBER ON THE INTERNET. This is no fun at all! :-)

FYI:

10 times as many people are willing to converse with me on slashdot as to send me an email.
10 times as many people are willing to email me as call on the phone.
So, the phone calls end up being managable. This is a social phenomenon worthy of study. Something about the relative intimacy of various forms of communication and willingness to engage in them.

Thanks

Bruce

Re:Miswording

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for the explanation.

I've always wondered if rich organizations (read microsoft) could hijack the boards of groups like the FSF, OSDL, etc.

IMHO it's already happened with the OSI - largely corporate sponsored, and makes decisions like it is -- but by grooming a few trojan-horse-board members it'd be an interesting way to attack open source.

Am I paranoid, or does this actually sound like it could happen?

Re:Miswording

[Anonymous Coward]

A mere 1 hour and 20 minutes after first post, the subject of the discussion begins to participate in the conversation. I just think that's really cool. :)

Bruce, thanks for adding your side of the story and thanks for reminding me why I read Slashdot.

Re:Miswording

[Bruce Perens]

It's lucky that I was in the right time zone and not in a meeting where I would not be able to do this or away from good net access. I don't catch stories like this every time. But you are all welcome to email me (bruce at perens dot com) if there's anything you think I should look at. Usually I'm able to write back. Once in a while I miss a message, it's OK to send a repeat to get my attention.

Bruce

Bruce is correct - remember Steve Wozniak phone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bruce is correct - remember Steve Wozniak phone?

In the early 1980's Steve Wozniak still had a published phone #. (actually 2 published #s I believe, one was a polish-joke-of-the-week answering machine, the other was in his den)

But you could still call the two lines. Steve Wozniak did not mind callers, and had a lot more fans and interested parties in 1983 than Bruce typically has.

I think Bruce is a stand up guy and to be RESPECTED.

Thanks, Bruce

[osgeek]

Just answering the /. questions/comments as they're posted beats the heck out of one of those interviews where /. picks the top-rated posts and you get this long carefully-planned monologue-type response two weeks later.

Good luck with the software patents thing. You obviously understand how important it is, and many of us here do too. Thanks for spending your time on it.

Re:As someone who was there

[rk]

Some of my best friends are people I disagree with on many issues because they are passionate about things and give a damn. They usually want the same things I do, we just see how to get there differently. I can always get along with someone like that even if occasionally they piss me off.

Re:Miswording

[Neolith1982]

Did you ever read Karl Marx? No, I don't mean "the communistic Manifesto" (Das Kommunistische Manifest) but "the Capital" (Das Kapital).

Do you know what he states there? He says that the worker, who produces something, should own the resources, so that the worker can build up a relationship to the product.

This should seem common to you. Think of source code, which owns everyone, who owns the product. If you believe it or not, open source has a lot to do with Karl Marx. You can see this like a socialist (NO!!! NOT LIKE STALIN! THAT GUY WAS FASCIST!!!), or like a liberal, but a lot of suggestions of Marx are found in modern open source. AND IT WORKS!

Maybe more corps should take economic advisory from Karl Marx :)

I know, this is offtopic, but I've read that much nonesense about Marx, socialism/communism and the relationship between them and OSS on slashdot, that I wanted to say this once!

greets Patrick