Open at Adobe

Apache Flex has been voted on in the Apache Foundation incubator.  And the vote is positive.

Apache Flex is now an officially blessed podling at Apache. (in case you missed it, here’s Roy Fielding talking about what it means to be an Apache project, part 1 and part 2)

From the email by Bertrand Delacretaz:

The vote passes with binding +1s from:

 Jean-Baptiste Onofré
Greg Stein
Mark Struberg
Greg Reddin
Ralph Goers
Felix Meschberger
Chris Mattmann
Olivier Lamy
Michael McCandless
Bertrand Delacretaz

 (hopefully I got all Incubator PMC members who voted)

 and a number of non-binding +1s, with no other votes.

This is great news for the future development of Flex.  With the energy and activity of a great Flex community, I expect to see amazing development and innovation in Flex as well as branches into areas that have never been consdered before.

Thanks, Apache, for offering such a great way to free projects and engage community.

Today, the incubator proposal for Flex went out on Apache Incubator wiki and mailing lists. This a a great move to get the Flex open source technologies into and driven by the community. So starting now is your chance to comment and support the creation of Apache Flex.

Since the beginnings of the open source license release of Flex, he desire has been to work with the community to develop and improve Flex in delivering internet applications with deep and rich expression.  With somewhere in excess of 350000 active Flex developers, Apace Flex is well positioned to be a vibrant and merit-based open source project, driven by the desires and direction of the whole community. In short, future directions and deliveries will be driven by the community, rather than by Adobe.

The concept of moving significant open initiatives from Adobe to outside foundations is a direction that makes sense for both us and the community. Community support and development is a principal strength of open source development. And it is increasingly apparent, at least to us, that such presence is best led by the community, even for technologies initially developed within a corporation. Adobe is beginning to understand the advantages of such independent foundations, through not only releasing Flex, but also projects such as PhoneGap (now Apache Callback), or contributing to project like Apache Felix. While Adobe cannot speak for more than ourselves, we believe that market-significant and/or complex projects would do well to consider support and drive from foundations such as the Apache Software Foundation, to help create free and open environments of collaboration.

Adobe’s commitment to open source and standards is something we’re always building upon and we’ve taken another step forward by joining the board of directors for the OSGi Alliance. Adobe serves as a “strategic member” of the OSGi Alliance and Adobe’s Felix Meschberger, a senior computer scientist focused on Adobe’s CQ5 Web Experience Management (WEM) Platform, has been named to OSGi’s board of directors.

From their website, the OSGi Alliance, a non-profit corporation, is a worldwide consortium of technology innovators that advances a proven and mature process to create open specifications that enable the modular assembly of software built with Java technology. The OSGi Alliance provides specifications, reference implementations, test suites and certification to foster a valuable cross-industry ecosystem. Member companies collaborate and promote adoption of OSGi technology through business benefits, user experiences and forums. The alliance also promotes collaboration among important ecosystem players within and outside the OSGi Alliance in order to provide the market with innovative solutions based on open standards. For more information, visit http://www.osgi.org/About/HomePage.

Adobe is excited to help the OSGi Alliance further drive the creation, evolution and promotion of open standards and specifications. Adobe CQ5, for example, is built on the OSGi framework. Apache Felix, driven by Adobe’s Felix Meschberger and Carsten Ziegeler, is an open source project devoted to the implementation of the core framework specification as well as Compendium and other specifications.

Adobe intends to continue being actively involved in the evolution of existing specifications as well as potentially driving new specifications. At the same time, we continue our involvement in the Apache open source projects involving OSGi technology such as the Apache Felix, Aries and Sling, as well as numerous other Apache Foundation projects. Stay tuned for future developments!

If you’re attending EclipseCon in March 2012, don’t miss Felix’s session on the Apace Felix Web Console- Web Based OSGi Framework Administration.

Earlier this year I attended the Gamification Summit in NYC, after seeing a small presentation by the Gamification Guru himself, Gabe Zichermann – @gzicherm, at the OSCON event in Portland.

So what is gamification.

Well, it’s a package of a lot of things you probably already know, but the semi-official definitions:

Web definitions

Gamification is the integration of game mechanics or game dynamics into a website, service, community, campaign, or application in order to drive participation and engagement. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification

(Gamify) To incorporate fun game-play elements into a website that attempt to drive participation in an activity by providing reward and motivation for doing so.
vview.co.za/definitions/

The art and science of using game mechanics in non-game businesses to increase efficiency, customer loyalty and engagement.
www.business2community.com/strategy/gamification-dictionary…

Think of this in terms of Status, Achievement, Power, Stuff.  Every one of these elements exist in open source, for its self selected community.

Back in the ’90′s, I often got asked by CxO types, “Who pays for Linux?”. The answer I coined in 95 is that Linux is funded by ego-dollars, the awarded status of contributing to Linux. We’ve had developer status for more than a decade, we recognize achievement for (usually) developers.

Note the elements bolded above (bolds are mine).

Open source is both viewed as very successful in terms of adoption, and also very limited in adoption in certain areas of interest. Think open source items like Apache, Eclipse, Webkit.  But then think of items like Linux desktop use, a topic I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to understand.

Gabe’s presentation says it better, but here’s a summary.

Open source does not make it easier for a non-technical user to embrace.

Open source goes out of its way to empower technical users/developers.

Open source adoption (editor: for desktops) could be massively accelerated if it became more “fun”.

Now, whether you agree or not, it is true that making use of applications can be challenging, even daunting. Too often I hear the mantra “I put someone on Linux”. I also hear the user mantra “I tried to use something and it started asking for things I’ve never heard of”. Maybe this is the intent, since it certainly leads to the potential commercialization of good and popular projects.

Some projects do a good job. Most don’t. Think about such spaces as GitHub, SourceForge, etc. Go do a search for personal finance and look at it as if you aren’t a coder/developer.

Anyway, I’d enjoy thoughts on the Gamification space and how you’d like to see open source engage with the vast majority.

Well, it seems the death of MeeGo is all but assured.

Enter Tizen

Of interest is the programming interface model.

From the site:

The Tizen application programming interfaces are based on HTML5 and other web standards, and we anticipate that the vast majority of Tizen application development will be based on these emerging standards. These APIs will cover various platform capabilities, such as messaging, multimedia, camera, network, and social media. For those who use native code in their applications, the Tizen SDK will include a native development kit. We will open the entire Tizen software stack, from the core OS up through the core applications and polished user interfaces.

The real factor may be the fact that the entire software stack will be open. Of course, it is still to be determined what open will mean in this case (since it seems to vary wildly across the spectrum of technology).

So what do you think?  Are we still in a limited mobile platform market, defined by iOS and Android, or does Tizen make it?