Category: Blog

  • Why design and marketing matter and what to do about it

    [ad_1] I love when technical conferences remember to include talks by the non-technical, for the non-technical. I’ve worked on documentation for open source projects for longer than I can remember, and it’s not always easy to find a great talk about how to contribute to open source in non-technical ways. Rachel Nabors started off the…

  • Linux hardware support, Creative Commons translation, and more open source news

    [ad_1] The world of open source software is a busy place. Sometimes keeping up with all of the news, announcements, and cool things to be discovered can be difficult. Here’s a look at some of what we’re reading today. Linux on Mac hardware While many hardware enthusiasts get excited by the announcement and release of…

  • Open source licenses are shared resources

    [ad_1] One can easily see examples of software as a shared resource, whether shared by a few people or a few million people. Of course, these shared resources are not always as fully appreciated as they should be. They can pass underappreciated until drama such as a security vulnerability draws attention and illuminates the importance…

  • Security B-Sides conferences attract growing information security crowd

    [ad_1] Information security (InfoSec) is hard, a moving target that waits for no one, and so it is often reactive rather than preventive. Good InfoSec requires more than just experts toiling behind the scenes to protect us; it requires the involvement and input of the whole community. The Security B-Sides DC conference is part of…

  • Free and open sewing patterns gain popularity

    [ad_1] I’ve been sewing for six years, and I now make all of my own clothes. Sewing is easy. It really is. What’s hard is getting things to fit properly. That’s why you use a sewing pattern. It’s a blueprint for whatever it is you are making. A good pattern gives you good fit. Most…

  • Addressing open source's free rider problem

    [ad_1] Nadia Eghbal, in her major report on the state of our digital infrastructure, and Jonathan Lister, in his response describing our digital ecosystem, both point to a tragedy of the commons in open source software. While some projects are sustainable, many still struggle with “a free rider problem.” As Nadia puts it: Resources are…

  • A new kernel on the way, self-taught software engineering, and more open source news

    [ad_1] The world of open source software is a busy place. Sometimes it can seem difficult to keep up with all of the news, announcements, and cool things to be discovered. Here’s a look at some of what we’re reading today. New Linux kernel on the way On Sunday, Linus Torvalds announced the release of…

  • How maker communities align with open source

    [ad_1] The maker movement intersects deeply with open source. When I think of open source I normally think of the most hardcore bleeding-edge software or hardware development. But the maker movement has a long-established sharing culture, which really is nothing less than pure open source. The source code is a little different, however. For example,…

  • Introduction to Eclipse Che, a next-generation, web-based IDE

    [ad_1] Correctly installing and configuring an integrated development environment, workspace, and build tools in order to contribute to a project can be a daunting or time consuming task, even for experienced developers. Tyler Jewell, CEO of Codenvy, faced this problem when he was attempting to set up a simple Java project when he was working on…

  • How Capital One is embracing open source

    [ad_1] I was scrolling my Facebook feed on a lazy Saturday when… boom! I saw that one of my acquaintances had quit his job at one of the Silicon Valley darlings. This company prided itself on creating a revolution in their niche, and raised hundreds of millions of dollars and employed hundreds of people all over the world.…