Collective invention & cooperation

Collective Invention & Cooperation

Notes for a definition	To invent [in mathematics] consists in making new useful combinations. Inventing is to discern, to elect. Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) Invention: a novel application of a "generalized principle". Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) Invention is an act of creativity that results in a device, process, or technique novel enough to produce a significant change in the application of technology. The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia
The repositories	An inventory of "generalized principles" made accesible, and the upsurge of unused powers liberated by the combination of machinery and superheating of thought, is the real wealth of society. Fuller + T. de Chardin Only one thing there is not. It is [the] oblivion. God, that saves the metal, saves the dross And ciphers in his prophetic memory [of us] The moons to come and those passed beyond. Jorge Luis Borges
The collective footprint	Collective investigation, a consequence of industrialization seen as liberation of man's hands from labour. Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) On Poincaré:He is credited by many as a codiscoverer (with Albert Einstein and Hendrik Lorentz) of the special theory of relativity. The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia the works of Poincaré and Lorentz as a direct background to the great einsteinean synthesis: ....it is shown with special clarity how science problems that are more acutely posed in an epoch, are imposed to the most sensible and talented investigators, making their works to converge and their results be obtained as a fruit of a collective activity. Eli de Gortari. Introduction to "Philosopy of Science". Writings by H. Poincaré
Celebrating the Mistery	We don't know the ways of universe but we know that reasoning with lucidity and acting with justice is helping those ways that won't be revealed to us. Borges Structure is "local" because it is finite; it has a beginning and an end. We cannot have a total structure of Universe. Fuller Peace through conquest, work in joy. These are waiting for us beyond the line where empires are setup against other empires, in an interior totalization of the world upon itself, in the unanimous construction of a spirit of the earth. A new domain of psychical expansion --that is what we lack. And it is staring us in the face if we would only raise our heads to look at it. T. de Chardin
Evolution breakthroughs? a three step dance	Evolution theorists identify a nature´s species creation ceasefire at the time of man´s appearance on earth. To determine whether our linux model is a landmark for invention modality (and a ceasefire call on non-collective types of invention) is what a composition from the next links pose. Linux was born from the convergence of several computer science and technology threads.
A Unix history by Ronda Hauben	UNIX The AT&T Bell Labs developed the UNIX time sharing operating system after pulling out from a project called Multics where GE wanted to develop Multics to "strengthen its product line," MIT wanted Multics "to advance the state of art" of computing, and Bell Labs' purpose was "to have a good environment for their people to work in." The primary contributors to UNIX were highly educated mathematicians and computer scientists employed by what many people feel is the world's premier industrial research center, Bell Laboratories. Although they were knowledgeable and experienced in their own right, these developers maintained professional contacts with researchers in academia, leading to an exchange of ideas that proved beneficial for both sides. Dennis Ritchie (one of its creators) wrote: ....Unix enjoyed an unusually long gestation period. During much of this time (say 1969-1979) the system was effectively under the control of its designers and being used by them. It took time to develop all the ideas and software, but even though the system was still being developed people were using it, both inside Bell Labs, and outside under license. Thus, we managed to keep the central ideas in hand, while accumulating a base of enthusiastic, technically competent users who contributed ideas and programs in a calm, communicative, and noncompetitive environment. Some outside contributions were substantial, for example, those from the University at Berkeley.
1st landmark	Berkeley Tague, head of the Computer Planning Department declared: I did not argue with them [UNIX team outsiders] about whether or not they should develop their own operating systems -- knowing in my heart of hearts that once they got on UNIX they wouldn't be able to do any better with the experience and the schedules they had. Indeed, that is what happened. In June 1985, Tony Cuilwik, head of the Operations Systems Development Department at Bell Laborators and then director of AT&T Information Systems Laboratories in Columbus, Ohio, wrote: ....the fundamental integrity of the national telecommunications network that depended on more than 1000 real-time, mini-computer-based systems that are built on a version of the UNIX operating system.... among the varied and wide-ranging functions these systems perform are network performance measurement, automated network testing, circuit order planning, circuit order record- keeping, automated trouble detection, automated or directed trouble repair, service quality assurance, quality control, inventory control, customer record-keeping, and customer billing --as well as any number of other operational and administrative functions. These functions all require the ability to present data to users in real-time. UNIX was attractive to the academic Computer Science community for several reasons. John Stoneback, describing these reasons, writes: "UNIX came into many CS departments largely because it was the only powerful interactive system that could run on the sort of hardware (PDP-11s) that universities could afford in the mid '70s. In addition, UNIX itself was very inexpensive. Since source code was provided, it was a system that could be shaped to the requirements of a particular installation....and it was small enough to be studied and understood by individuals." "UNIX had another appealing virtue that many may have recognized only after the fact --its faithfulness to the prevailing mid-'70s philosophy of software design and development. Not only was UNIX proof that real software could be built the way many said it could, but it lent credibility to a science that was struggling to establish itself as a science. Faculty could use UNIX and teach about it at the same time.... Obviously, UNIX was destined to grow in the academic community." By the late 1970s, when Bell Labs released Version 7 UNIX, it was clear that the system solved the computing problems of many departments, and that it incorporated many of the ideas that had arisen in universities. The end result was a strengthened system. A tide of ideas had started a new cycle, flowing from academia to an industrial laboratory, back to academia, and finally moving on to a growing number of commercial sites. Bell Labs concluded that: Perhaps, the most important [thing for them was] that UNIX was being used as the operating system basis for a bunch of operations support systems in the Bell Operating Companies and we could not afford to let those support systems go down. We put configuration management and all of the associated paraphernalia in place about 1978.
Arpanet: an internet ancestor UUCP: unix to unix copy Usenet News: forum for online discussion	Using UUCP, the UNIX community was able to pioneer still another advance, Usenet News. "Though large institutions have been able to avail themselves of communications networks such as ARPANET, the UNIX community has made inexpensive electronic communication available to all of its members via Usenet," writes Stoneback, "A community that already had so much in common," he explains, "was strengthened and enhanced by the ability to move software easily among locations and to maintain a reasonable electronic mail system." By 1980, a survey conducted by the Computer Science Research Network (CSNET) of academic institutions to find out what computer system they used, found that "over 90 percent of all departments were served by one or more UNIX systems." John Lions, a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at the University of New South Wales, in Australia, says: "Much of the development of UNIX in Bell Laboratories occurred before 1978. After Edition 7, many of the original group went off to do other things. At the same time, UNIX was becoming important within the Bell System, which gave rise to a support group whose charter was to develop a polished and stable version of UNIX. This group was less interested in innovation than in stabilizing the system. Universities have simply picked up the slack."
Overview of the GNU project	GNU - Free Software Foundation The GNU Project was conceived in 1983 as a way of bringing back the cooperative spirit that prevailed in the computing community in earlier days --to make cooperation possible once again by removing the obstacles to cooperation imposed by the owners of proprietary software. In 1971, when Richard Stallman started his career at MIT, he worked in a group which used free software exclusively. Even computer companies often distributed free software. Programmers were free to cooperate with each other, and often did. By the 1980s, almost all software was proprietary, which means that it had owners who forbid and prevent cooperation by users. This made the GNU Project necessary. Every computer user needs an operating system; if there is no free operating system, then you can't even get started using a computer without resorting to proprietary software. So the first item on the free software agenda is a free operating system. An operating system is not just a kernel; it also includes compilers, editors, text formatters, mail software, and many other things. Thus, writing a whole operating system is a very large job. It took many years.
GNU manifesto	Stallman speaks: "We decided to make the operating system compatible with Unix because the overall design was already proven and portable, and because compatibility makes it easy for Unix users to switch from Unix to GNU." "The initial goal of a free Unix-like operating system has been achieved. By the 1990s, we had either found or written all the major components except one --the kernel. Then Linux, a free kernel, was developed by Linus Torvalds. Combining Linux with the almost-complete GNU system resulted in a complete operating system: a Linux-based GNU system. Estimates are that hundreds of thousands of people now use Linux-based GNU systems."
2nd landmark	How Stallman started the fire "I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share with others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this way. I cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a software license agreement. For years I worked within the Artificial Intelligence Lab to resist such tendencies and other inhospitalities, but eventually they had gone too far: I could not remain in an institution where such things are done for me against my will." "So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have decided to put together a sufficient body of free software so that I will be able to get along without any software that is not free. I have resigned from the AI lab to deny MIT any legal excuse to prevent me from giving GNU away." What was the computer related people´s answer "I have found many other programmers who are excited about GNU and want to help." "Many programmers are unhappy about the commercialization of system software. It may enable them to make more money, but it requires them to feel in conflict with other programmers in general rather than feel as comrades. The fundamental act of friendship among programmers is the sharing of programs; marketing arrangements now typically used essentially forbid programmers to treat others as friends. The purchaser of software must choose between friendship and obeying the law. Naturally, many decide that friendship is more important. But those who believe in law often do not feel at ease with either choice. They become cynical and think that programming is just a way of making money." "By working on and using GNU rather than proprietary programs, we can be hospitable to everyone and obey the law."
Open Sources an O´Reilly book	Who is Linus Torvalds ? He created Linux, of course. This is like saying "Engelbart invented the mouse." I'm sure the long-term implications of the following email:
3rd landmark	`From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: Gcc-1.40 and a posix-question Message-ID: <1991Jul3.100050.9886@klaava.Helsinki.FI> Date: 3 Jul 91 10:00:50 GMT Hello netlanders, Due to a project I'm working on (in minix), I'm interested in the posix standard definition. Could somebody please point me to a (preferably) machine-readable format of the latest posix rules? Ftp-sites would be nice.` Never occurred to him. Linus could not have foreseen that his project would go from being a small hobby to a major OS with from 7 million to 10 million adherents and a major competitor to the enterprise aspirations of the world's largest software company. Since the mass adoption of Linux and its wildfire growth through the Internet --26% of the Internet's servers run Linux (the closest competitor is Microsoft with 23%)-- Linus Torvalds' life has changed. He has moved from his native Finland to Silicon Valley, where he works for Transmeta Corporation. About his work at Transmeta, he will say only that it does not involve Linux, and that it is "very cool." He has had two children and one patent (Memory Controller for a Microprocessor for Detecting a Failure of Speculation on the Physical Nature of a Component being Addressed), and has been a guest at the most prestigious event in Finland, the President's Independence Day Ball. His personality won't let him take credit for something as his own when in fact it is not, and Linus is quick to point out that without the help of others, Linux would not be what it is today. Talented programmers like David Miller, Alan Cox, and others have all had instrumental roles in the success of Linux. Without their help and the help of countless others, the Linux OS would not have vaulted to the lofty heights it now occupies. The landmarks. Each one reached a no-return point. When it was a waste of time (within ATT and universities around the whole world) to try for a better time sharing operating system, the first landmark was set. The second was reached with the wide response to Stallman´s GNU manifesto calling to create a unixlike open, free operating system. The collective trend seemed a beatable foe to the propietary firms in those days. The third, when the first (and more than good enough) GNU system reached a functional state in the shape of linux systems. Lately, open systems defy propietary trends:
Open Sources an O´Reilly book	Recently, he [Eric Raymond] broke the story on a series of internal Microsoft memos regarding Linux and the threat Microsoft perceives in open-source software. The people involved A glance over three personalities involved in this process, gives us some kind of landscape sketch. In strict LIFO (last in first out) order:
Torvalds debate	Linus Torvalds. From the country of the pathfinding people, first wordly rated basic education system, and great children choir singing. Read the link at the left to have an idea of the passion involved in the operating systems for personal computers subject in those days. Torvalds goes through a debate.
Open Sources an O´Reilly book	Richard Stallman. In 1991, Stallman received the prestigious Grace Hopper Award from the Association for Computing Machinery for his development of the Emacs editor. In 1990 he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden in 1996. In 1998 he shared with Linux Torvalds the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award. He is now more widely known for his evangelism of free software than the code he helped create. Many have said, "If Richard did not exist, it would have been necessary to invent him."
Dennis Ritchie	Dennis Ritchie writes in his homepage (link is at left): I work in the Computing Sciences Research Center of Bell Labs, and have for a long time. Bell Labs remains a remarkably good place to do work that has enduring impact over the long run, no matter what the company, the courts, and PR types decide should be our name and logo on a given day or year. We finish with this paragraphs from unix co-creator Dennis Ritchie in order to put hand to hand our desirable "linux way of inventing" (open, accesible to everyone´s participation and gratuitous) with a proper celebration of the greatest misteries of universe.
The "labscam" homepage (Ritchie's words) The video (in google.com) The Penn&Teller abstract (to the video)	Take your time to enjoy and meditate over the "labscam" link at the left. Maybe the deep voices of the universe have spoken twice to the same man; being the second a truly warm human voice in collegiality. Something we should long in any invention.