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September 14, 2006

Open source

Open source and it strange rewards

Since I've been working on the MusicBrainz project, I've learned a lot about how to do many things with little to no money. For the first four years I lived with an income below the poverty level for California.

There are a number of people who understood my vision for MusicBrainz and have helped me along the way. Random personal PayPal donations. A plane ticket here. A spare cot in a hotel room at a conference. A free conference adminssion. A couch to crash on. Tidbits of valuable information. A spare apartment for two weeks!

Most recently John and Jan Buckman (Magnatune and BookMooch) have been helping me immensely by letting me stay in their posh flat here in London, which is saving me a ton of bucks. London ain't cheap -- thanks John and Jan!

There are also lots of rewards that less tanglible -- like being invited by the BBC to come and explore how the BBC and MusicBrainz can work together. Working in a room full of BBC engineers for a week has trained me to not react everytime someone says the word MusicBrainz. MusicBrainz is on other people's minds too and it feels good to see others talking about it.

But, not all the rewards from open source are positive. There are always people who will bad mouth your free work and insult every pore of your being in the process. And lots of critique and praise for every one of your actions -- it seems that sometimes being an open source person is like being a politician: You're going to make some people happy and others furious. You can't make everyone happy -- I think that was my open source lesson for this summer.

Regardless, I think open source is cool and this life/business style is interesting even if its too stressful sometimes. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to MusicBrainz or to myself -- without the silent supporters in the background I would never have come this far.

Let's see what kinds of open source rewards I'll get to experience next -- things continue to get more interesting by the day.

Posted by Mayhem at September 14, 2006 02:31 PM

Comments

You've been over working with the Beeb again! Drat! I wish I'd known, I'd have bought you several very large drinks.

Is it that lot over at R&Mi?

Posted by: kim at September 15, 2006 08:08 AM

Whooooops!

Yes, I just spent the last week in London. Many aplologies for not letting my presence be known.

Chances are that I will return to London before too long -- and we'll set this right!

Posted by: Mayhem at September 17, 2006 12:05 PM