Re: [DotGNU]Re: [arch-users] In defense of (the idea of) having an XML-RPC api

[Norbert Bollow]

Stephen J. Turnbull <address@hidden> wrote:

> dotGNU is just as dangerous as .NET.  "The medium is the message",
> McLuhan taught us.  And what is the message of the medium (at least as
> described by Mr. "Clients as Thin as My Understanding" on arch-users)?
> 
>                   THIS DATA YOURS NOW DATA OURS IS.

Addressing this issue has been part of the DotGNU vision since the
beginning.  It's part of the definition of "DotGNU webservice"
that the owner of the data must be able to download the data as
well as the webservice program (that runs on the server) which acts
on this data.  (This download function provides bytecode which can
be executed on any DotGNU webservice server for identical results;
it doesn't immediately provide source code, but if any part of the
program which implements the webservice is GPL'd, that is good
enough to give the owner of the data also legal rights to obtaining
the source code).

> dotGNU will be abused.  dotGNU is the "socially responsible" corporate
> IT department's wet dream: free software that promises expanded
> budgets and control over the independent cowboys.  And most worrying,
> being free it will lower TCO of an IT dictatorship dramatically.

Well they can modify Free Software which was developed by the DotGNU
project and use it while trying to sell webservices services that
would effectively lock-in the customers (i.e. making it very hard to
move their data and the associated webservice from that service vendor
to e.g. an in-house server).

However we can use trademark law to prevent them from using the term
"DotGNU webservice" when marketing such "lock-in webservice services".

It is my considered opinion that webservice vendors which sell such
"lock-in webservice services" will not be able to compete successfully
with vendors of DotGNU webservices.  (I believe that most buyers of IT
services are wise enough to understand that lock-in situations are not
in their best interest).

> To do good, dotGNU needs to concentrate
> on the _business_ side of offering _cheap_ _high-quality_ services to
> the bovines, to keep the herd out of the corrals of Gates and Jobs.
> And the services have to be good enough to undercut internal corporate
> IT empires.

In the arena of "outsourceable webservices" this is what DotGNU needs
to be focused on, I fully agree with that.  Note bene, besides that
there is another arena where webservice protocols are important and
relevant, namely the arena of system integration.  And that "system
integration" arena is what mdupont has been referring to in his posts
on the arch lists (I believe he wants "arch" with an XMLRPC interface 
for a project of his which is not part of GNU or DotGNU).

Greetings, Norbert.

-- 
Founder & Steering Committee member of http://gnu.org/projects/dotgnu/
Free Software Business Strategy Guide   --->  http://FreeStrategy.info
Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet (near Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel +41 1 972 20 59        Fax +41 1 972 20 69       http://norbert.ch