Part 1: Contributing to OpenStreetMap.org

The walkthrough for using the iD editor on OpenStreetMap was very intuitive; simple click-and-drag actions that allow for powerful edits.

The idea of my post office popped into my head. I don’t know why, but perhaps it had something to do with me worrying about my missing package. Anyhow, I quickly noticed that the address was not labelled as a post office on OpenStreetMap. So, I simply went ahead and made the change. I didn’t have to do any extra area labelling.

Link: https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/62263467#map=19/40.59959/-73.94835

Since I was already in the mood to make landmark changes, I decided to see if my bank was labelled. Unfortunately, my bank was already on the map. So I proceeded to look over the changes on a nearby bank. I quickly noticed that this one was not labelled. So, again I pulled out my nifty and powerful tools and made my mark upon the world.

Link: https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/62263531#map=19/40.59885/-73.95370

Next, I noticed that the parking lot near the bank was not marked. So, I went ahead and marked it and labelled it.

Link: https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/62263568#map=18/40.59790/-73.95379

It really helped that I have local knowledge of the places and that I was willing to provide evidence for the changes.

Part 2: Readings on History and Context

Richard Stallman is a key proponent of the free software movement; although, he shares his concerns about the open source software movement. Although – Stallman describes – open source software as having become highly popularised to the point where almost all software is dependent on open source software, its campaign has deviated from the original idea of providing users with software that maintains the developers’ freedom; as open source became monetized, the free software movement became less and less of a priority.

Why do we care about Richard Stallman’s opinion at all?

Stallman established the Free Software Foundation that revolutionized the budding technological world and provided a platform for the free software campaign in the early 1980’s.

He launched the development of the GNU is Not Unix (GNU) operating system in 1984 that served as a fully-fledged alternative to proprietary operating systems and was completely free to run, study, change and redistribute. Linux is, in fact, a variant of GNU kernel.

Moreover, Stallman helped developed the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) that helps protect the freedom of all users of a program.

Okay, Okay, but is open source/free software even viable?

Eric Raymond is another such individual who has contributed to the understanding of open source (or free software) and how its development is more effective than traditional industrial software development; he cites the Linux project as the premier example and walks through his own experience with the open-source world.

Despite having a significant number of insightful one-liners, Raymond’s The Cathedral and the Bazaar dubs the principle of finding and fixing bugs quickly Linus’s Law; it’s based on the understanding that if there are more users and more developers working on a project, the bugs will be exposed – and subsequently fixed – faster. It strikes me as an interesting counter-propostion to Frederick Brooks’s argument that complexity resulting from adding more developers results in a longer development time; I think both of these points have merit if they are practiced in the appropriate circumstances.

As a (hopefully) budding software engineer, I’ve noticed that when the data structures are appropriately selected for a particular task, the logic (i.e. code) usually becomes trivial (this does not hold for duck typed languages). Raymond’s proposition, in this case, fits like a glove with Brooks’s assertion that flowcharts (code) can be easily deduced from tables (data structures).

Hmmm, what do you think about this whole shebang?

First, I can’t believe you actually used “shebang”. Second, I think the free software movement is an exaggerated one; and you already know I’m going to compare it to Communism. It sounds marvellous on paper, but falls apart in the real world. I’m going to approach it from a very selfish perspective. If all software is free, how will we, programmers, get paid? There is a detailed model – one adopted by the likes of RedHat – that offers paid support for software and in turn makes profit. Whilst that works for a subset of companies, like veganism or theism, if the entire industry decided to convert to using free software, that would bring about an unsustainable environment. Open source software, as it is used today, is more pragmatic in my humble opinion.

Moreover, it is ironic that individuals who claim to follow the bazaar model – whose very premise rests on the idea of order rising from controlled chaos – are willing to dictate how modifiable, extensible and open software should be marketed and used. Contradictory? Perhaps.