Open Source Bridge - The Story of Spaz: How to Give Away Everything, Make No Money, and Still Win
Edward Finkler http://getspaz.com @funkatron http://funkatron.com
- non-technical talk--"why I do what I do"
- learned how I define what success and happiness are
- Spaz is a personal project -- about 3 years old
- twitter client -- "your special twitter friend"
- based on original logo people thought he was making fun of mentally retarded people
- actually is a picture of clay aiken from early american idol
- twitter client -- "your special twitter friend"
- Early 2007
- work started on Spaz
- had done a couple of open source PHP libraries in the past
- had only done open source for other developers, not for end users
- started work in RealBasic on Mac
- also the author of LameBrain, wrapper for LAME
- started getting interested in twitter API
- not many other Mac clients for twitter at the time
- article written up in ars technica about it
- pownce came along about the same time
- came out with desktop client, written in apollo (now AIR)
- RealBasic wasn't set up to make it easy to make it look non-standard or skin things
- silverlight was also being released about this time, also Java FX
- particularly interesting aspect of AIR was that you could make apps in HTML/CSS/JS in addition to Flash
- looked at using Flex, but not a fan of monotheistic technology
- Flex community is a lot like the MS development community--one official source of information, not a lot of community sharing going on
- quite a contrast with something like PHP where everyone shares in a bunch of different ways
- didn't like having to go through the official channels to try and figure things out
- really hard to simply search for things on the internet and find examples with Flex
- twitter was really flaky at this point--had to write the code very defensively
- learned a ton by digging into this--crash course in javascript
- driven because he was interested in it and enjoyed working on it
- "I liked what it did, and I used it"
- November 2007
- Adobe had AIR Developer Derby in mid-2007
- submitted Spaz on a whim
- got a call in October 2007 from Adobe saying he won
- got to go to Adobe MAX conference, lots of PR around it
- Adobe didn't give a rat's ass that it was open source
- they liked it because it was pretty
- only got about 5 submissions on the HTML side of things
- was at the AIR booth--people asking tons of questions that frankly Adobe should have been answering
- turned into evangelist of sorts
- cool that Spaz got known in the wider world
- Adobe had AIR Developer Derby in mid-2007
- 2008-2009
- started to get emails criticizing the name--"why do you hate the disabled?"
- happened quite a bit
- tons of twitter clients released in 2008
- lots of them written in AIR
- a few clients were a lot better with marketing themselves -- biggest example is TweetDeck
- people spending full-time on it, went after venture capital, etc.
- cool if you want a twitter client that fills your whole screen, but wasn't what he wanted to do
- seeing success of tweetdeck was hard
- started seeing comparisons of spaz vs. tweetdeck--lots were kind of nonsensical
- http://bit.ly/usersareassholes
- the thing I like about open source is creating something and getting ideas from people, hearing about how they're using the product, etc.
- lots of end users were saying stupid things like "Spaz sucks"
- big disconnect--creating products for end users is pretty different from creating developer libraries
- people were dismissive and mean -- made it not fun
- eventually learned to respond with humor to baseless criticisms
- helped to not get as upset about things
- started seeing companies that were hanging off twitter and providing services that twitter doesn't provide
- twitter has started to stomp out all the ancillary business around twitter
- started getting offers from companies around spaz
- people offering money to add specific services to spaz, e.g. twitpic
- wanted to continue to provide an open source, transparent twitter client
- in one case took money as a donation to offset overall development time into spaz
- wasn't interesting in doing this in general
- this underlined a specific way that he wasn't willing or able to compete with other clients that were out there
- would sacrifice transparency around the project
- realized how screwed up and evil tech journalism is--fundamentally wrong
- actively manipulate how people perceive things, don't give coverage to things that don't play their game
- started to realize he couldn't compete with other clients because of all the extraneous junk that goes on
- started to get emails criticizing the name--"why do you hate the disabled?"
- palm webos -- jan 2009 - june 2009
- got call to see if he was interested in working on apps for the new webos
- palm wasn't really known as an open source company
- said up front he wanted to keep the app open source--palm didn't object
- web development as a rule is pretty open, but palm didn't really have this understanding in their DNA
- had to sign really strict NDA
- palm was rushing things out, documentation was terrible
- went to a developer event at palm--could talk about things, but couldn't share the code he had written--against the NDA
- this six months sucked because couldn't make something and share it with other people
- palm didn't tell him another company was also working on a twitter app for webos
- found out from someone else--no information sharing going on
- bunch of secret stuff--wasn't fun
- didn't get a development device--emulator ran 3X faster than the actual phone
- didn't write specifically to their proprietary platform so it ran slow
- another twitter app that did write to the proprietary bits ran faster
- got email from palm asking not to release source code
- had told them first thing he was going to open source it
- lot of wtf moments
- decided he would never work for another company like this under an NDA
- palm didn't get the sharing culture--they get it much better now
- two guys from ajaxian got hired to better interface with the development community
- immediate changes for the better--hope HP doesn't screw it up
- reminded me of lessons i should have learned the first time around
- friend recommended book -- "ignore everybody and 39 other keys to creativity"
- the thing that you really like doing, if you rely on it for income, it'll become less enjoyable and it will change how you interact
- when spaz became something that was being defined by standard definitions of success, the process became less enjoyable
- had to redefine what success was
- july 2009
- spaz statement of purpose
- can keep going back to this and referencing it to remind himself of why he's doing what he's doing
- spaz was built for the sake of building it. it is not a means to an end. however, creating it has had several good consequences.
- point of it was to build something and build something good
- spaz demonstrates that making things is good, and sharing how you make them is better.
- creative endeavor in and of itself is good
- sharing is what makes me happy
- spaz is a necessary counter to closed, hidden technologies. spaz must always be open.
- source code must always be open and have to be transparent about the intentions of the project
- important that we have options, even if they aren't the most popular or defeat other projects
- the value of spaz does not lie in the judgments of others, but in the process of building it, and the enjoyment derived by those who use it.
- we welcome anyone who wishes to participate in the spaz project with open arms, as long as they understand and respect the purposes of the project.
- the spaz project values clear and open communication between participants.
- having the statement of purpose helped keep things going when it was frustrating
- spaz statement of purpose
- 2nd half of 2009
- not a lot happened
- worked on getting webos version better
- started on spazcore to share common things between all the different platforms
- discovered didn't have time to try to keep multiple versions going
- started working on community building
- diversity statement
- women are under-represented -- 10-15% in IT as a whole, open source it's more like 2-3%
- worked with a group called phpwomen
- largely lifted from python's diversity statement
- rest of 2010 -- cultivating a community
- initially was using google code for everything
- have found that github works better
- a lot of people use git (particularly js people), more social aspects oriented around git (easier to fork, etc.)
- potentially attracts more people
-
tenderapp.com and lighthouseapp.com
- tender oriented towards end-user support -- offer free accounts for open source projects
- lighthouse more oriented towards developer issue tracking, setting milestones, etc. -- also have free accounts for open source projects
- if you only have roadmap, etc. in your head it's very hard to get people to help you
- need to break things down into issues of various size
- schedule people's time for them in the sense that you give them bite-sized tasks
- hackathon
- great way to get more people involved
- helps to have a schedule
- done online with irc
- have someone who's more or less dedicated to doing community related tasks
2 comments
Jun 03, 2010
commadelimited said...
Matt...it's Ed Finkler, not Spinkler. Just FYI.
Jun 03, 2010
Matthew Woodward said...
Thanks Andy--I'll correct that. Was reading the name off the OSB site and must have mistyped it.
