Web Swarms

Currently there is a big debate within the open source (or shall I say"free software" or FOSS) community - if there is such a thing as one community of so many people, opinions and specialities. The subject is the Novell-Microsoft deal and one of the issues which is hotly discussed is if Novell will fork OpenOffice. I am not sure if this is the case and anyway it's not the topic of this post.

What I find irritating is the swarm-like behaviour of people who are defending or counter-attacking at the slightest apparent threat. And as an outsider the reaction seems disproportional, over the top. This is not limited or particular to the open source world, it exists in other (even all?) online communities. I have observed a similar attitude within the Lotus Notes community (this is the article and here is the other one which launched this frenzy and this is vowe's observation) and I am sure it exists within MS communities as well. Even Linus Torvalds has become the target of heavy criticism around his comments on KDE vs GNOME and on his scepticism on GPL v3.

Groklaw is currently aiming it's very strong criticism towards Novell (formerly the "good guys" ). In the Lotus Notes community several Notes specialists rambled about one blogger who agreeably was a bit naive in his technical proposition about a Notes issue, but the reaction of the Notes experts was again out of proportion.

Each time I have the impression that the members of that community are so happy to share common issues (usually using blogs) that they feel overly protective and chase like a swarm people, groups or orgs who disagree and therefore pose a threat. I do think that Novell was not very wise to do that deal with Microsoft, but I don't think that the terms of the contract are a threat to the open source world or to GPL.

On one hand it reminds me of the early days of email, when people needed to get used to that new style of communication and the copy-spiral that some often unintentionally flaming messages created. At the end everybody within an organisation was on copy and of course everybody started to feed the fire by sending additional comments or taking side. Similarly we probably have to learn what blogs and the communities of bloggers can do, both the good and the harm. Flaming has long been part of the culture in forums, but there the admins could control and ultimately exclude the flaming members. Bloggers can't be excluded, these communities have no sign-ins, no logins. And they have much more power than forum flamers. I am not calling for censorship, which is worse than anything else,  I am asking to please take a deep breath or a coffee break before creating a potential swarm thread or joining the swarm.

My other explanation is that there is an increasing divide in the software industry between management of software companies, but also software dependant companies, and the ITdevelopers and specialists. That in turn tightens the specialist communities who rightly feel that the management doesn't get it. They have started to create web 2.0 lobbies using blogs and blogrolls, the modern day unions if you will. And they are powerful: IBM is increasingly listening to influental bloggers and the comments of their readers.

However the Novell management obviously certainly didn't get it. Even some of their employee specialists, such as the SAMBA developer working for Novell, strongly object. And I honestly don't see how Novell clients will benefit from this deal. Novell is a company where the management is always several steps behind Novells' people and potential. The short lasting executives try to use old style business models, such as licensing, IP-protection and stupid strategy deals for a company which is at the forefront of open source.

Similarly IBM's management hasn't been very sensitive to the Notes community and even towards their Notes staff as Damien Katz posts in his blog. For years they have been sending confusing messages concerning the future of Domino/Notes and the marketing goals and strategy were far from excellent on projects like workplace & co. BTW, anybody got a clue, what websphere can do for you? (See, I preferred to link to wikipedia rather than IBM) ;-)

IBM is trying hard to overcome any divisions, Novell just seems to trample from bad to worse and then wonder why they are not as successful as their competitors. Regardless, if the "other side" is sometimes acting dumb, things are not getting better by putting oil in the fire.

I have been reading and sometimes commenting on Groklaw since 2003 and I absolutely respect Groklaw and of course Pamela Jones (PJ) for the work, but please, take a breath and be a bit more relaxed. Please, don't launch witch hunts like that.