O'Reilly Open Source Convention - August 1-5, 2005

Session
The Semasiology of Open Source (Part II)
Robert "r0ml" Lefkowitz, Vice President, Chief Information Architect, and Head of Risk Management Technology, Asurion

Track: Emerging Topics
Date: Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005
Time: 2:35pm - 3:20pm
Location: Portland 252
"Open Source" is a phrase like "Object Oriented"--weird at first, but when it became popular the meaning began to depend on the context of the speaker or listener. For "Object Oriented," that meant that PERL, C++, Java, Smalltalk, Basic, and the newest version of Cobol are all "Object Oriented"--for some definition of "Object Oriented." And so, too, the greater inclusion of things "Open Source."

In Part I, Lefkowitz talked about the shift of the meaning of "Open Source" away from any reference to the actual "source code," and more towards other phases of the software development life cycle.

In Part II, he returns to the consideration of the relationship between "open source" and the actual "source code," and reflects upon both the way forward and the road behind, drawing inspiration from Charlemagne, King Louis XIV, Donald Knuth, and others.

Frankly, the content is incontheivable.