Re: Charging the Charger

At 09:42 PM 4/11/2005, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> >>>>> "Marshall" == Marshall W Van Alstyne <[email protected]> writes:
>
>     Marshall> Who says when you give something back, it always has to
>     Marshall> be code?!?
>
>You can give as much extra as you want, of course.  But the code must
>always be one component.  That is the fundamental principle of free
>software, and that is why copyleft is the license of choice for free
>software advocates.

Respectfully, I disagree here.  Code may be one of the _best_ contributions 
but shouldn't be the only form.  In effect, this limits ability to 
contribute to people who can author code, a tiny fraction of the 
population.  Shouldn't we be more inclusive than that?

Besides, code is just one form of value. Food and money are others (and I 
at least need caffeine and to pay the rent!). Word of mouth is 
another.  You're contributing ideas aren't you? :)

OK, so maybe the next trick is to reduce those ideas ... to code, and put 
them in a model!

MVA