On July 15, 2023, we held the second event of KCC@Shanghai. The outdoor temperature on that day reached 39 degrees, but this did not stop everyone's desire for an open source city gathering. Microsoft Reactor arrived as scheduled:
We define the theme of this time as "the open source world from the perspective of an anthropologist". First of all, we will carry forward the spirit of open source culture. We will train teachers in a lecture style and move the table away to make room for more barrier-free communication. .
@陈玄:
In this study session, we will look at open source from an anthropological perspective, and we will find that open source is more than just software.
From an anthropological point of view, open source and business are not two conflicting concepts. How should open source be commercialized? Many people assume that open source is free, but this is wrong. The first open source software in the world to sell for money was Emacs, which put the software on tape and sold it for $50. But why do you think that open source and business conflict? Because the production of software is difficult, but it is easy to copy, especially open source software, it is easy for everyone to get the source code and run it, but the reason is that the ownership is not clear. Suppose we want to buy a book. This behavior has a clear transfer of ownership. After we have the ownership of the book, the author of the book has no right to modify the book. However, if we buy a song in music software, the software side has the right to take back the song we bought at any time. This is the change in ownership brought about by digitization.
Therefore, in the digital age, software licenses are required to guarantee the ownership of digital assets. At the beginning, software was sold together with hardware, but with the development of software ecology, people’s demand for selling software separately is getting stronger and stronger, but there will be no legal guarantee of software ownership, and even the word software has not yet appeared. . Therefore, IBM introduced the license of open source software for the first time. IBM wants to use the license to extend the ownership of hardware to software, so as to achieve the purpose of separating software and hardware. The company defines ownership in the open source license, and various A restriction on the dissemination of software. And what we are doing open source now is to return ownership to open source users.
Open source, a model in which code is handed over from the very beginning, is a test of humanity. Many cases have told us that in the absence of supervision and cost, there must be some people who do not obey the rules. Our current life is inseparable from open source software. For example, the operating systems of mobile phones and computers, and the control systems of various network transmission equipment are all produced using open source collaboration. Open source software has penetrated into our lives like air. corner of the corner. However, the maintenance of open source software also requires costs, such as code storage and transmission costs. While the open source license protects the ownership of software users, it also prevents the maintainers of open source software from obtaining sufficient costs, so many people are unwilling to accept open source.
In such an environment, why do we still do open source, and where is its charm? in its diversity. If a company wants to control the entire software ecosystem in a certain field, it can create a monopoly and grab excess profits, but the cost of doing so is very, very high. If we use an open collaboration method to produce open source software, more and more people can participate, and the more people think about the software, the easier it is to innovate, and the easier it is for the software ecosystem to prosper. Moreover, more people involved are users of the software, and open source is easier to produce products that meet user needs. For a company, the use of open source software will also reduce the company's operating costs. The method of using open source software is public, and users can also use open source software in advance to familiarize themselves with its method of use, which reduces the cost of purchasing software for companies. For software companies, the development of open source software can also make users understand their products better, and they can also launch community editions and commercial editions, or sell additional paid services together with the software, which are all mature and reliable business models.
Then, Mr. Li introduced the three books mainly involved in this activity: "Open Collaboration", "Free Software: Ethics and Aesthetics of Hackers", "Two Bits". The most important method for anthropologists to study and explore human social activities is fieldwork. They need to go deep into their research objects to fully understand their thoughts and actions. For this group of people who do open source, there are also anthropologists who are interested in them. In the pre-Internet era, the cost of information dissemination was very high, but in the Internet era, the cost of information dissemination has almost dropped to zero. Much of the Internet's infrastructure is built on open source software, such as the Network Time Protocol (NTP), which calibrates the time for terminal devices around the world. Open source has played an indispensable role in our lives, so isn't this group of people doing open source amazing? Anthropologists, by participating in their offline gatherings and other survey methods, found that this is not the case. Many important maintainers of open source software in the world, their labor is not seen by everyone, and their lives are also very embarrassing. That's why we do open source evangelism, so that more people can use open source software, understand open source ideas, and participate in open source collaboration.
As a layman in anthropology, I cannot give his unique thinking path and inquiry method, but as a beneficiary of anthropology, anthropological works have given me an other perspective to understand people, things and societies other than myself , not only in the open source world, but also the entry points of religion, work, currency, insurance, etc. are also very exciting!
———— "The Way of Open Source"·Appropriate
The sharing guests of this event are suitable for sharing the open source culture from the perspective of anthropology in high spirits
It was the first time to participate in the Kaiyuan Society KCC offline event, and I felt the diverse and inclusive atmosphere of the participants. As an anthropology learner and researcher, I am very happy to participate in such a real open source community field, communicate and observe as a member, and look forward to sharing the findings of open source community field research with community partners in the future. Believe that anthropology has irreplaceable value in the open source world.
———— "Yuanzao Academy" Zhang Liqiu
Teacher Zhang Liqiu is introducing his plan: to complete his doctoral studies by entering open source field research
Every time I participate in KCC activities, it is an opportunity for me to rethink: "What is KCC? What does KCC want to do? And what should KCC become?" Another friend asked this question. My answer is: Kaiyuanshe is the home of opensource people, and Kaiyuanshe focuses on establishing connections among opensource people. In every activity, every communication, and every collaborative task, people can deepen their understanding and appreciate each other. They are willing to come back to participate in other activities of the Open Source Club next time, and become volunteers and full members of the Open Source Club. . And KCC is the roots and seeds that Kaiyuanshe has planted in each city. This time the theme of the event is: "Anthropology" and "Reading", and the next time it can be a different theme, around open source, we will have an endless stream of refurbished activities, constantly attracting and gathering all kinds of open source Interested friends. This is the mission of KCC.
———— "Director of Open Source Society" Zhuang Biaowei
Chen Xuan, head of KCC Shanghai, who is also the planner and host of today's event, gave a welcome speech and introduction
Zhuang Biaowei, CEO of Kaiyuanshe, introduced Kaiyuanshe, KCC, and the importance of understanding open source in anthropology
attendees who listen carefully
The active questioners this time won a book "Becoming an Anthropologist" to encourage
The second active questioner (also a very good group photo conductor) won a book of "Open Collaboration" to encourage good questions full of context
Lili from SCA vendor Anshi Information did not miss the opportunity to popularize open source compliance and security
Li Xiaoming, director of the Kaiyuan Society, a well-known open source activity cooperator, expressed his views on open source and KCC
Another friend who won the book "Open Collaboration", Mr. Zhuang Biaowei personally sent it
Guo Xudong, a cloud native developer, CNCF ambassador, and LFAPAC open source evangelist, is explaining the global nature of open source itself
All the participants took a group photo ~ to commemorate! Looking forward to seeing you next time!
Author丨KCC@Shanghai
Editor丨Xiao Yuwen
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Introduction to Kaiyuanshe
Founded in 2014, Kaiyuan Society is composed of individual members who voluntarily contribute to the cause of open source. It is formed according to the principle of "contribution, consensus, and co-governance". It has always maintained the characteristics of vendor neutrality, public welfare, and non-profit. International integration, community development, project incubation" is an open source community federation with the mission. Kaiyuanshe actively cooperates closely with communities, enterprises and government-related units that support open source. With the vision of "Based in China and contributing to the world", it aims to create a healthy and sustainable open source ecology and promote Chinese open source communities to become active participants and contributors to the global open source system.
In 2017, Kaiyuanshe was transformed into an organization composed entirely of individual members, operating with reference to the governance model of top international open source foundations such as ASF. In the past nine years, it has connected tens of thousands of open source people, gathered thousands of community members and volunteers, hundreds of lecturers at home and abroad, and cooperated with hundreds of sponsors, media, and community partners.
