Humanitarian

Half of the world’s languages are dying. Should we save them?

Language is a means of communication that connects history and identity. In the article by Subhashish Panigrahi, the author talks about using open source technologies to preserve languages. The author touches on language dominance, stating that a language being dominant isn’t a problem but we should preserve the languages that are spoken by the minority groups. The author estimates that 220 languages have died in the past 50 years in India and 150 more are endangered. I’m saddened by the reasons why languages go extinct. The author cites poverty and the lack of digital tools as a huge obstacle with helping society and cultures share their native minority, language.

The author wants to make use of machine learning and mapping to organize the sections that are in danger of losing their native language. I think this is probably one of the coolest and most useful ideas towards cultural preservation. Imagine everyone having access to a program like a Rosetta Stone or a duo lingo for whichever language they like to learn. This advancement would be tremendous for all of society. We would have the means to communicate with as many people as possible. The ability to understand each other is an invaluable asset they humankind would benefit from.

“Open source is not a business model”

In the article Musings on business models for open-source software, [Callaway](https://spot.livejournal.com/327801.html) a former red hat employee categorizes seven business models for open-source software companies. There are subscription, donations, open core, consultancies, SaaS, peace of mind and FUD based models. The business model that seemed the most impressive to me was the peace of mind model. This model allows the open-source company to act as an intermediary to other open-source projects. [Tidelift](https://tidelift.com/) a brand new company exemplifies this model. They sponsor and support the community projects that they use for services. I believe this model has to be the future or at the very least a general direction for open source.

This model allows for open source to live on for eternity. Open source projects will beget open source thus creating an environment for more contributions and more ideas for new projects. I appreciate this model because the potential for growth and connections for Tidelift and the other companies it works with is tremendous. Callaway goes on to point out that there is a lack of pure open source companies in the marketplace despite all the potential benefits to could provide for customers. My guess is that companies are probably too scared to put themselves out there as the guinea pig. This means there is probably a lot of monitoring on a company like Tidelift to gauge how the company maneuvers any mishaps that may occur and the trajectory . All in all I think the market will need to embrace open source sooner than later.

8 advantages of using open source in the enterprise

In the article Congdon explore 8 advantages of using open source in the enterprise. The author mentions the flexibility and agility of open source as a means to solve problems and attract better talent to one’s company. It also allows for a problem to be solved quicker than a proprietary model because you allow for multiple contributed solutions to be explored. Open source is cost-effective in that it allows a company to start small with various options and then scale up with a commercial solution. It also allows for maintains costs to be shared rather than burden with one company. After reading this article I’m even more convinced that open source will be more integrated into everyday life before we know it. Having said that I’m still perplexed as to why CIOs aren’t quick to use open source technologies. I suppose a lot of those companies have had proprietary code for so long that it may be a bigger hassle to transition the entire company (FUD). Perhaps these companies fear the inability to return to the proprietary model if they find they need to diverge for some reason.

Open-source Dream job

I think I would enjoy working for a company that only produced open-source software. The ability to connect with various companies and people and the speed at which we can impact change would be the main reasons why I’d like to work in such a setting. For example, I’m having some trouble with my development environment on the project I wanted to make a contribution to. I was able to communicate with a maintainer to get guidance on what my next step should be. When the issue is solved the application will have the ability to impact many. This environment and style of working would be my dream job, extending myself to see how I can help make a small impact in society. I would like to see big tech companies lean more towards open source solutions. We are headed in that direction we might as well get to solutions faster with the help of open source.

Project Update

I was having trouble with the development environment and I was able to get a response from a maintainer of the project. She guided me on how to work through my development environment issue and the initial issue itself. I have yet to implement the solutions but im extremely relived that communication is open.