The rise of the FOSS spinmeister

Sam Varghese
Thursday, 24 January 2008 18:00

Opinion and Analysis

Additionally, FOSS projects are always fighting for public acceptance and hence tend to circle the wagons in order to present as good a face as possible to the public. The spinmeister takes advantage of this.

A large number of developers who are involved in FOSS projects work for some company or the other - in some cases, their employers allow them to work on a FOSS project during normal working hours. In other cases, they use their non-working hours to indulge in their FOSS pursuits.

But the spinmeister cannot do this - he or she has no skills in this direction and there are few companies which are looking to hire incompetent "advocates" or "consultants." One thus finds that the spinmeister, in many instances, sets up his or her own consultancy and actively uses his or her position in the FOSS sphere to generate business. Self-promotion comes easy to this breed, dishonesty and a lack of integrity is close behind.

In truth, the presence of a growing number of individuals who fit this description is harming a good many FOSS projects. And unless these projects act with some alacrity to cleanse their ranks of these vermin, it will affect their own progress. The sooner the cleaning of the stables is done, the better for all concerned.