[Ground-station] Call for discussion: ORI satellite program

[Bruce Perens]

On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 9:44 AM, Bdale Garbee via Ground-Station <
ground-station at lists.openresearch.institute> wrote:

>
> Given my deep history in both AMSAT projects and open source
> communities, I'm pretty confident in stating that open source processes
> are insufficient by themselves to deliver a functioning spacecraft to
> orbit.


We need to be careful to distinguish process and product.

My surmise is that much more fund-raising than AMSAT carried out is
possible. They don't seem to have had a development director (fund-raising
officer) while I've been watching. And with more fund-raising comes the
potential for some paid technical staff and a degree of process that most
Open Source projects would find impossible without some paid technical
staff. Like the kernel janitors on Linux, etc. Even without paid technical
staff responsibilities and hierarchies that most Open Source projects would
find odious have worked for AMSAT. Indeed, to a degree that they didn't
seem to know how and when to operate without them.

In contrast, the product must be maintained as public knowledge throughout
its development. Our whole strategy to avoid ITAR/EAR collapses without
that. Open Source licensing is not necessary for the ITAR/EAR strategy, but
to meet other goals: it facilitates collaboration by removing legal
barriers and creating an intellectual property framework which the
developers are willing to support.

    Thanks

    Bruce
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