open source

Comic: XKCD #225.

Open Source has been around for quite some time, but odds are most people you ask won't know what "open source" is. This isn't because open source is obscure, but rather it has slipped into the mainstream, and unless you're already in the know, there's no real reason you will have noticed it.

But open source is here, and it's growing.

In the beginning, the world was offline. The past was just what we could remember. Conversations faded. Introductions to others slipped into the realm of unnamed faces and disconnected anecdotes. Jokes were heard and forgotten. Photos bleached out and negative film turned to dust. News clippings crumbled. Documents misplaced were unfindable. Address books lost were irreplaceable. What happened in Las Vegas really did stay in Las Vegas.

Then there was the Internet and all that began to change. The World-Wide Web came to be, and we all became potential publishers. With few exceptions in the larger-business realm, the first websites were no more than billboards. Then they were brochures. Then in the late '90s blogging began. In the '00s, walled-off chatrooms siloed off within services like AOL and Compuserve were replaced by more open communities ... and then social networks. (Walled-off social networks like Facebook opened up into full-blown social networks.) Before we knew it, we were emailing, chatting, shopping, researching, bookmarking, socializing, podcasting, showing videos, sharing, advising, asking, boasting, laughing, crying, raging, raving online.

It has come time to consider a phone system. While most of the company clan uses mobile phones for personal calls, we do have sales and support that do need real phones, with voicemail, multiple simultaneous dialtones, etc. We tried the Vonage thing, but that had too many "can you hear me now?" moments for a business to suffer, so we went to the multiple Qwest lines, which required little in equipment investment but is far too costly each month -- not to mention every time we move or want to add a line.

Last week we got a pitch from Qwest reps. The part that probably does make sense is doing a T1 with dynamic bandwidth allocation and integrated access, opening up some channels and handling all the phone switching from a box. (Not sure if Qwest is best choice for that, but I'll reserve judgment for now.)

The part I'm less sure of is the Oracle Cisco box they are bundling with the service package. They are going to put some numbers together but my hunch is that it's going to be just a tad more expensive than we are wanting (or even able) to spend.

Yesterday were the elections for the Drupal Association, and much to my surprise and excitement, I was one of eleven new permanent members elected to the General Assembly. I say "excitement" because I'm now more involved in the day-to-day activities of the Drupal Association -- not that I wasn't or couldn't be involved before. And I say "surprise" because there were 57 applicants, many of whom are community members I much admire and respect.

We all sat in an IRC chatroom while the existing Permanent Members discussed and voted on our applications. We were chatting nervously -- you had to almost speed-read to keep up with the chatter. What was happening in deliberations? We had no idea.

Board Member Angie Byron writes: