Postcards from the Bleeding Edge
Monday, January 26, 2004

  The open source superbowl

I started this piece last year, got as far as the first half, then lost heart. Maybe I will finish it before the big game. Which is better? A few hundred yards of mars or few hundred yards in a satiric football stadium? Basically I was trying to put together the big game - between the team - the Closed Source Foundation - CSF for short - that want to own everything (quarterbacked by by a series of men in black) and those that want to make it a better world (quarterbacked by Linus Torvalds - with eric raymond as wide receiver, Doc Searls at fullback, and a host of other luminaries at various positions)...

I figured it would be a good radio script (I flashed on some scenes in Bull Durham) but I never got further than dictating most of the first two quarters, and writing this one scene down.

Imagine the following read like a radio football announcer -

It's fourth and 10 on the CSF's 40. There's 30 seconds left in the quarter, enough time left to run just one play.

You bring out - RMS. He's the 390LB John Perry. He's so big that you only call him out for special plays on offence and defence.

Even if you don't hand him the ball, the opposing side all piles on him in the hope they can stop whoever's following - sometimes even your own team piles on him so they can stop him from running over the officals.

RMS lumbers in from your goal line, past the 10, past the 20... He's got momentum... He's got inertia, he's nowhere near the huddle yet but Linus has got a time out called so it doesn't really matter, past the 50, to the 45, Linus calls the snap and hands Richard the ball. RMS goes... right up the middle. There's no stopping him!!! Score! RMS ploughs past the goal line, through the base of the stadium and out into the street.

The government agents watching the play radio out "RMS has left the building, rms has left the building"

...

Meanwhile, upstairs in the luxury suite, agents of the Men in Black pour drinks into the league chairman, trying to convince him to change the rules of the game....

 
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David Täht writes about politics, space, copyright, the internet, audio software, operating systems and surfing.


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