Extra Credit: Open Source Sowftware

While reading Clay Shirky's writings about the internet, many interesting things came to mind. The first thing I thought about is how quickly the internet is and has been growing. The article talks about the 'new' creations in social software when there are new ones being created each day. With things such as 'the facebook' and 'myspace' there are different types of programs that many people probably couldn't have ever imagined. But again, after thinking this the article stated that "social software has progressed far less quickly than single-user software, in part because we have a much better idea of how to improve user experience than group experience." And this does make sense, because although new kinds of social software are coming out all the time, it seems as though there are constant improvements being made. I feel as though a lot of the software that comes out starts at it's bare minimum, in order to see how users react. It really must be difficult to study the group experience rather that the single user experience, but I think that part of the way they do this is to look at general trends within the individuals who themselves form the group.

I also found it interesting when the article stated that "no matter how much the administrators say its 'for work', people will bend communications tools to social uses." I feel that this may be true in some cases, but I also feel like so much of the social software out there isn't created for work use but rather for people's enjoyment and personal use. If this statement is referring to the computer or the internet, then yes, but I feel like these things are both tools for work and social uses. I found this article to be very interesting, and it brought up a lot about social software that I hadn't previously thought about.

Open Source Software Movement

I think it's really important for communication scholars to study the open source software movement. I think it would be interesting for scholars to study many aspects of the open source software from the technologies point of view and also a interpersonal point of view. As programmers collaborate on the software it creates relationships. As Stallman states, "creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far as society is free to use the results." I feel that the open source software movement is also a social happening between programmers.
I also think that the open source software can be very benificial for many individuals.
The idea of a free program as Stallman envisions is really interesting, and he's able to answer any doubts on his idea. The idea of programmer's sharing their software and nothing being secret any more is very noteworthy. If the open source software movement is studied, there could very well be many advancements made. Although it seems as if there are a lot of kinks to work out in order for it to be free, it is a good plan.

Discussion questions:
1. UNIX: how does it work and how is it different from GNU?
2. Is there anything out there that is similar to GNU? How many different ones?
3. After questioning if communication scholars should study the open software movement makes one wonder if they already have? Have there already been studies done? What have they found?