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May 23, 2005
What does 'proprietary' mean?
What does 'proprietary' mean? Can you help me figure the underlying meaning of a persistent label? Timothy O'Brien writes here of how he prefers a SWF-based mapping application to a JavaScript-based one... but that's not why I'm blogging this. The first comment, titled "blernk" from "tmo9d", disagrees, because "it's proprietary". The second comment, titled "hee hee" from "zero11", expands on this slightly: "it'd be a heavy, slow, and proprietary version of google maps, but it only kinda works part of the time. that's flash for ya." (Capitalization failures in the original.) So, if someone responds to the observation "I personally didn't want to debug against a variety of engines" with the standalone argument "it's proprietary", then what do you think they're really concerned about? What does that label mean to them? It's hard to take it on face value, because they'll use software to which they don't own the source code, they'll drink soda pop made with secret processes, they'll use grid electricity rather than set up solar generators, they'll drive patented cars that they can't remix. What do you think it is that makes "it's proprietary" the equivalent of garlic & crucifixes for people who immediately respond like this...? (There are many inaccuracies in the comments, from the SVG angle to the accessibility angle and beyond, but I really need to better understand how someone could simply say "it's proprietary" as if this meant something... what is it that speakers think others immediately understand from that label? any tips, tests, thoughts...?)
Posted by John Dowdell at May 23, 2005 6:42 PM