I had so much fun last time talking--and thinking--about the connections between “open source,” (software) and knitting, in terms of what happened in the knitting world a few months ago (actually, it’s probably longer now), that I wanted to continue to think and write about these subjects. I’ve been listening to FLOSS Weekley and also thinking a lot about the way that creative types can afford to be creative, that I think this is a good little project for us to consider for a while. Also, I hope that it will provide a chance for a lot of the ideas that I’ve been playing with for a number of months to finally start to come together in our minds. I recognize that my selection of topics here is… eclectic at best: sometimes its a good thing to pull it all together.

Last time, I left with a number of points, that I thought needed further consideration, and I’m going to spend some time with the first (italicized) item today. Here they are for connivence sake:

• Is there a layer of information that goes into knitting design and documentation that isn’t typically exposed in “closed”/conventional publications? (that would be equivalent in role to source code)?
• The role of editors and communities and the sometimes very “conventional” development models that “open” projects use.
• The way GPL/GFDL knitting projects can be used commercially.
• Technological methods of attending to such a project.

In software, open source is important because without source code, developers are stuck perpetually recreating the wheel (or paying through the nose to license code) if they want to replicate a feature or whatever it is that programers do. Once compiled, code is basically secure, and though you can read it, without the source code, you can’t edit it, or continue to develop it in anyway.

In some ways, knitting is always already open source: knitting designers are often found selling patterns of their work, which is basically source code. Furthermore, a skilled knitter can look often at a “compiled” sweater (or sock or whatever) and be able to duplicate it with some degree of accuracy. And what’s more, most of the time knitwear designers aren’t designing stitch patterns, but rather combining or selecting patterns from libraries like the Barbara Walker treasuries, or the Sheila McGreggor Traditional Knitting collections. (For the programers out there, think “framework:” we had you beat on Rails 50 or more years ago.)

And I think this presents a problem for knitters wanting to “go open source,” because the first assumption is that to open the knitting source you would have to give away polished patterns (source) so people could adjust the pattern (develop) and then knit their own sweater (compile). I’m not sure how other people design knitted things, but I write patterns based on notes reflection of my process (so, I basically design on the needles, shoot me now.) Why couldn’t this be the source code? Then the OSKC¹ could develop the project (update and polish the pattern,) eventually compiling a finished pattern, and individual knitters could knit the pattern (that they could start knitting at any point in the development,) and create forks with any new developments that they create (their modifications might be submitted in the same “rough notes” format that the initial project can be submitted in.)

My larger goal here is to create a model where the “costs” of going open source for knitters very low. It’s my sense that knitters the world over are doing a lot of designing but probably not publishing it because while it’s easy to decide to knit a sweater in a truly novel way, it’s much harder to write instructions in a clear and consistent manner, and then test it properly. This is where, perhaps the largest benefit for Open Source is (for both knitting and software:) in the fact that there is--or should be--a community that can distribute a lot of the work far more effectively than a small closed group of developers/knitters.

In my last post on this subject, I was speaking to the debate/tension between the creative commons projects and the idea of a GPL/GFDL approach. The truth is that this discussion is pretty agnostic on this question, which is really about project structure. You could do “OSK” in a CC type environment, that’s for sure, but I think next time, I’ll get onto the more into the merits of the GPL/GFDL, and business-y type stuff.

Until then, I remain, tycho

News flash it turns out that the n800 does have VIM. And nano, if you want it. Frankly, I think that’s pretty darn swell, and I think running nano with your thumbs would be a lot easier and more desireable than learning vim, though I could see the appeal, if you had

I wonder, though if you can do subversion checkouts through it, and thus use subversion as a synch tool. I mean who needs to wait for .mac integration when you can cook up some simple shell scripts?

I like the idea that jeff suggests where through bluetooth and a portable keyboard you can sort of force the internal editor to turn off. Now I do this with my laptop, more or less all the time, so it’s not a big concern for me, and I can imagine in a situation like this VIM wouldn’t be the tool you wanted, but none the less, having this kind of capability in a mobile device would be simply killer.

I think the new iPod Touch is a great piece of technology, and while I don’t really see a need for anything new in terms of a music player until I outgrow my current ipod, which will take a while. Having said that, buddy dave/will suggests that apple will come out with some sort of tablet in the next year. Which makes sense, they’re so close, and they could totally pull that off, in terms of technology, and I think there’s demand, and for many of the same reasons that the n800 appeals, that appeals more.

Full sized touch screen keyboard on a tablet? With the ability to use TextMate and TextExpander? Anyone? I think the kicker would be if it were all flash based, think they could probably get about 40 gigs for something reasonable in the next year, which would be plenty for something like that, if production isn’t a problem.

Anyway, enough geek fantasy for right now, I’m going to get some fiction writing of my own done before I have to do real work. And drink tea, must remember to drink tea.

Have a good day, I’m sure I’ll stay in touch. :)

I have an irrational desire to look for and get a new computer.

I recognize that this is irrational. Zoe works fine, and while I might like to do some audio production work some day, I don’t really need anything that I don’t already have, and frankly things work pretty good the way they are now, and my system is working pretty well. I might need to get another firewire drive in the next six months or so.

Chris is always tinkering with his set up, and I swear hasn’t kept an OS running for more than a couple of weeks. Some people… heh.

I’m thinking about getting something like the Nokia N800, though, as the price is about 350, and it seems like it would do everything I’d want in a portable device (PIM stuff, skype, AIM stuff via WIFI, bluetooth, web browsing, PDF reading, and it probably has pico/nano, or something) it’s pretty cheap, it’s expandable, and it would mean I could leave zoe at home in situations where I wouldn’t need full blown laptop power. Also it would provide a better interface for digital reading, and best of all it wouldn’t tie me into a two year contract like some cool new things things with major suckage.

Cheers, tycho

How funny that I wrote about wanting a Nokia n800 this morning, just before apple releases the touch screen ipod with wifi, that basically does the same thing, and is potentially cheaper. Check out the coverage on engadget and other fine locations throughout the interwebs.

The other ipods look spiffy, but I’ve not come to a situation where I think upgrading for me would make sense. Having said that, one of the new nanos looks like it would make a really ideal gift for someone who might not need a full blown ipod, but would still like something more than a shuffle.

Generally, at my alma mater, students would say hi to each other as we passed each other on the side walk. Usually this happened when we knew or recognized the other person, even if we weren’t friends.

At current institution, no one says hi or makes eye contact on the way to class, except very occasionally, when it’s clear that people know each other.

For instance I’ve been siting next to the same guy for two weeks, I think he shares a name with one of the apostles, has passed me on the way to class at least half a dozen times, and he has yet to nod. I’m just saying its weird.

The other observation is that current institution students tend to dress better for class. While I am proudly wearing pajamas to class, most people seem to wear “real clothes.” People wear makeup, and many people seem to pay some attention to their grooming.

The alma mater students by contrast for the most part, don’t really dress up that much, and are pretty universal in their slobyness. It was interesting because I think other means of distinguishing class were devised (or not, often). Also, I think we, for the most, bathed less frequently.

I’ve been back on a productivity kick these past few weeks, without much explanation. Though my summer hasn’t, exactly, taken me out side of the academy, I’m more firmly in the in the 9-5 support aspect of an institution, and so I don’t get the delightful “manage your own schedule” and generous sense of work that I’m used to (and are common to college and university life), so in order to stay on the blogging and writing bandwagon, I’ve had to re think the way that I organize my time and “get things done.”

For the six or so months before I started working I’d been on a morning schedule, where I did what I could to work early in the morning, and did things like read and knit in the afternoon. Working in the morning disrupts this, as you might imagine. The other issue is that most evenings aren’t good for sitting down in front of a blank document and writing: I have a hard time really getting into things, I’m not at my prime level of alertness, and I’m trying to not completely squeeze out relaxation time. It’s good to let go every now and then.

In this vein, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I write, and what kind of snags I tend to get me, so that when I do get a morning, or an afternoon to write, I can make the best of it. And it’s making sure that I keep up with my outlining and planning. For a few weeks, I would go hear music at an Irish pub on Tuesday nights--when no one was there--and sit in the corner with my moleskin and fountain pen, and outline a dozen articles, story parts, and station keeping pieces. Then I’d go home and have plenty of things to write about for the coming week(s). It was a great ritual, as they go, and almost without dedicating any energy to it, I had material to work with.

When I don’t have specific outlining sessions, or it gets away from me, I find myself with good writing time, and no real clue as to what I should be writing, and it’s not that I have writers block, or that something’s wrong, but that I’m better when I have an outline or at least notes on hand. In a weird way, it’s like a first draft, except a bit more rough. By the time I’m sitting at a computer, I like to have been through the story, the argument once and not have to generate it on the fly. While I can generate new stuff on the computer, the temptation to write completely is strong.

And when I’m in the throws of drafting, I will forget to outline more, because I like milk a momentum for as much as it’s worth, and before you know it: bam! and I’m out of things to write. So the “hack” here is to not only make time to write, and seize writing time from the interstitial moments in your day, but also make sure that you make outlining a valid effort that deserves its own time. While I often have trouble writing at night, it’s much easier for me to outline at night, and I try take advantage of this. I also make sure that outlining, in addition to drafting and revising, are things that make it onto the ‘todo’ lists with equal footing. Understandably it also means that word counts, should/do become a less useful indicator of progress, but there are worse things.

Anyway, I hope this was useful. Be well and write in good health.

Cheers, tycho

Hey, I have posted another TealArt entry on writing and planning.

I wrote this a while ago, and kept putting off posting it, for some reason, and It’s good to remind myself of this lesson, because I can be really bad about keeping up on my planning. We really tend to measure productivity in terms of the total amount of finalized output, not all of the auxiliary tasks that make productivity possible. Like outlining, or research. I’m really bad about letting research happen.

Anyway, cast your eyes over here to read “Writing Pipeline”

Open Source Knitting: Part 1

This is the first installment in a new series for TealArt that I wrote about knitting and the knitting community, and it’s connections to the open source community.

I’m mostly posting this notification here so that ravelry types can see it, but I think it’s an interesting idea.

I’m going to go try and pull my day together…

cheers, tycho