Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Systems administrator, author and activist Tom Limoncelli kicked off Australia's 10th national Linux conference proper in Hobart this morning with the first keynote.
Limoncelli spoke about the two mindsets that prevail in the IT community - that of scarcity and abundance - and how focusing on the latter could free up energy for creative ways of dealing with the problems that IT people face at work, in their communities and in life as well.
To illustrate the scarcity mindset, he said his parents grew up during the depression years, hence he was taught to always save the last potato, the last slice of bread and keep it in the refrigerator.
"Plenty is more common than what we are taught," Limoncelli said, adding that those who adopted the abundance mindset tended to treat their users better and manage their systems better. This also extended to treating themselves better.
On the other hand, if one began to believe in what Limoncelli characterised as the false world of scarcity, then that would lead to secrecy, mistrust and closed-source software.
Gatekeepers kept the system in a state of scarcity by making decisions about who and what was doled out; they had now been made obsolete by the internet because people were now so much more in control of things themselves.
He contrasted TV channels (you had to watch what they decided to screen) and YouTube where something like a number of hours of video was uploaded every minute.
Another example he gave of gatekeepers was that of proprietary software companies which decided what features they would add to their software - you had to take what they decided to create.
Contrasted with this was free and open source software where users themselves could turn developer if the need existed; else they could pay some FOSS developer to add any features they needed. The open source camp did not need to dance to the tune of the gatekeeper.
In a world of plenty, how can systems administrators add value? Limoncelli said the basics of trust, safety and stability were the answers.
Creating trust came down to ensuring consistency across locations and users, correctness even when delegated and demystification of "our profession."
With open source, there was a culture of giving, he said, concluding with a screen where Tux, the Linux mascot, was shown as being equal to love.
David Bass
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