bascha

916 points
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Red Hat HQ

Editor, writer, and developer. I wear many hats, including the red one. Graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism; long-time interest in all things geeky. Editor of Red Hat Magazine and grizzled industry veteran, including time as an archivist for SunSITE UNC (now ibiblio.org) and ten-plus years at my current gig. I love:

  • vidya games and other dubious online experiences (Second Life, WoW, DDO, Rift--started out with Zork, IRC, and old-school BBS and MUDD/MOO/etc. groupings... old school nerd!)
  • cooking, crafting, and creativity
  • smart people
  • openness, transparency, honesty, and trust
  • coffee in all its delicious forms

I loathe:

  • giving the web a version number
  • social media "experts" (who send me spam)
  • proprietary thinking about thoughts and ideas
  • soggy cake or bread
  • greed, selfishness, and a lack of humility
Open Source Evangelist Author Founding Member

Authored Comments

bascha
Charity in the modern age: How do I give without getting got?

Oh yes, Karen, great point--there are lots and lots of other sites that provide this information. One of the positives (at least I think so) of the open source way is that data that is open and available can be used by lots of people to provide lots of different services, and can be added to or collected/parsed in different ways. The downside? You have to work a bit harder to verify every permutation.

In that sense, you should always check your data--make sure the info from one source matches another, and also check with the non-profit themselves--any non-profit not willing to answer your questions or that seems to find your concerns offensive, is probably defensive for a reason!

bascha
Poll: meritocracy and fairness

Oooh, that looks really interesting, Nikos. Anything that takes me from the French Revolution to the petty jealousy of girlfriends (or guyfriends) sounds interesting! I'll have to check it out.

And, yes, I agree entirely about the confined context of (free) software development--especially in the community in the wild. When there is little status at stake (status being reward or acknowledgement, usually money), then meritocracies seem to work exceedingly well.

It usually seems to be when money/power gets added to the equation, that things start to get sticky. Sticky... but also fascinating.