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Journalist and Open Source advocate Bryan Lunduke has been reporting extensively on the W3C and the EME DRM controversy (discussed previously on Soylent) over the past months. Today, he has announced that he has submitted an application to join the W3C, and was approved. He will be attempting to crowdfund the application fees, and intends to act as a representative for the open source community and to push for greater transparency in the W3C process.
Transcript from the video (@3:30):
I've put in my application; my application this morning was accepted; and once I get all the signed paperwork back to them and pay them my membership fees I will be a member of the W3C, and I will begin to take part in various W3C planning activities and discussions. I feel like there is a real opportunity here for someone from the free and open source world -- I know there's already Open Source advocates internally at the W3C, but I feel like we need someone who purely represents the public, with no corporate backing whatsoever...in order to properly represent the needs of the people...who don't necessarily like the direction the W3C has gone in recent days (and months and years).
Does this matter? Can one guy with a crowdfunded membership and no corporate donors to please actually bring about change in an organization like the W3C? Or is this just throwing money at the people causing all the problems in the first place?
(Apologies for the YouTube links, but I can't find this information elsewhere at the moment.)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @05:38AM
So like, what, he tells you to do code review on fanfold paper and then recycle your paper printouts in a compost heap with your own feces? Does he tell you to get a part time job as a zoo ranger so you can stick your erect penis into penguin cloaca after hours? Just what kind of "open source" "advocacy" are we talking about?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by coolgopher on Sunday October 01 2017, @05:44AM (6 children)
Didn't EFF already resign from the W3C? Not to disparage this guy, but if the EFF couldn't make their voice heard, what chance does he have?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by d(++)b on Sunday October 01 2017, @06:58AM
Yes and none.
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Sunday October 01 2017, @09:12AM (2 children)
He's pulling a second Lunduke.
It seems the [linuxfoundation.org] first [slashdot.org]** one is 404-forgotten [thepowerbase.com]
---
** greensite warning: apologies for it, this was where I got it the first time (Feb 2013), I couldn't find any other references.
The linked message explains briefly what happened. Below, without the links in the comment:
If my memory serves, the story actually continues with him "retracting" the published source code. Whatever he released didn't create too much interest in OSS movement for anyone to continue.
The Linux tycoon [github.com] has 1 fork and one contributor.
One other software "involved" in the stunt is "Illumination Software Creator - a tool for visually designing and developing software". The history part on Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] shows some details on the "saga"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Sunday October 01 2017, @11:02AM
Some other oldies (some of them on about 10th page on Google search)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 02 2017, @06:09PM
And yet certain segments of the community seems to hold him in high regard, in particular the "new guard"...
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday October 02 2017, @12:37PM (1 child)
Yeah, Lunduke did mention that in the video...and essentially the point he made was that the EFF is a political organization and therefore has to be a bit more diplomatic. Lunduke's got no problem publishing a video calling someone a fuckin moron if he thinks it's true.
Which may not be very effective at *fixing* anything, but it could certainly be therapeutic to watch... :)
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Monday October 02 2017, @11:41PM
Yeah diplomacy doesn't work with nutcases. I mean, just look at how Kim Jong-iforgetwhich is faring with Trump.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @06:11AM (3 children)
Chef, Puppet, Ansible are Open Source. Fun fact: DevOps morons have redefined Open Source to mean open source configuration management automation tools and nothing else.
Linux is not Open Source anymore. Sorry. Better luck next buzzword.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RamiK on Sunday October 01 2017, @08:17AM (2 children)
1. They don't say that.
2. If you can't replicate the build, how do you know it's the same source?
compiling...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Sunday October 01 2017, @09:22AM (1 child)
One of the things about the GPL is that it requires build scripts to accompany the source, so full GPL compliance allows someone else to produce the binary from the source. Not all projects make this easy, and I'm not sure what happens if your build environment depends on non-GPL software.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Pino P on Sunday October 01 2017, @03:49PM
A free program with unavoidable non-free dependencies, be they build systems or platform libraries, is called Java-trapped [gnu.org]. Programs written in Java used to be Java-trapped until Sun released OpenJDK.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Sunday October 01 2017, @05:01PM
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @05:33PM
Bryan Lunduke Joins the W3C? Thank God!!
Wait. Who's Bryan Lunduke?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @07:00PM
The EFF was better positioned in every way to effect change, and they threw in the towel. Mr Lunduke is a powerless individual who can't even afford the $2250 application fee and appears to have only the most minimal grasp on the internal processes at the W3C. However, being able to list this on his resume will likely boost his career and open some more doors to him. Maybe keep that in mind before giving him your hard-earned cash. All he needs to do is push for more transparency, the key action item in his video, in order to deem the whole thing a success (regardless of results). And just in case the plan goes horribly wrong, he's given himself an easy out at 12m:48s in the video.
Actually, it seems like a pretty good plan. Well, good for Lunduke...