Open Source Developer Knighted 101
unixfan writes "Georg Greve, developer of Open Document Format and active FOSS developer, has received a knighthood in Germany for his work. From the article: 'Some weeks ago I received news that the embassy in Berne had unsuccessfully been trying to contact me under FSFE's old office address in Zurich. This was a bit odd and unexpected. So you can probably understand my surprise to be told by the embassy upon contacting them that on 18 December 2009 I had been awarded the Cross of Merit on ribbon (Verdienstkreuz am Bande) by the Federal Republic of Germany. As you might expect, my first reaction was one of disbelief. I was, in fact, rather shaken. You could also say shocked. Quick Wikipedia research revealed this to be part of the orders of knighthood, making this a Knight's Cross.'"
Right Direction--More Money and Sex Appeal (Score:5, Insightful)
So you can probably understand my surprise to be told by the embassy upon contacting them that on 18. December 2009 I had been awarded the Cross of Merit on ribbon ...
Your surprise (and assumption the rest of us are surprised) is a result of cultural conditioning. Open source developers are (in popular culture where I live) unshaven, smelly, poor, obese, socially awkward, annoying, nerdy, pimple ridden, inferior beasts dungeoned in their mother's basements because they are incapable of anything else.
Despite this being nothing further form the truth, it persists. We often take it in stride and joke about it but that's the conceptualization of a work force so damned important to the entire world it's almost a social injustice. Why, you'd probably have to travel to some "crazy European country" to find otherwise.
One of my friends became a volunteer firefighter because it was seen as dangerous and attracted females when he flaunted his credentials at bars. It was something he put on his resume to increase his pay. Open source should be along the same lines and I predict that in the distant future it will be when a more tech savvy generation realizes that something like ODF equates to billions of dollars in good will and stimulates their economy in the end.
Once a more accurate reflection of this or image is implanted in a generation of children, who knows what could happen?
Congratulations Sir Greve, you no doubt (in my mind) deserve this. Do not be uneasy, you are not alone [slashdot.org].
Proper. (Score:3, Insightful)
also i wonder which fool tagged this 'idle'. it is something which will create more clout for os, and also advertise it in the eyes of government level bureaucrats. yet some of you were short sighted enough to think this was an 'idle' affair to be tagged as idle.
Our turn (Score:5, Insightful)
Idle? I digress (Score:5, Insightful)
I know we get dozens of stories every week that deserve filing in idle.slashdot.org because of their relative irrelevance as "news for nerds". Now, this is about one FOSS developer who actually receives some official recognition for his efforts. It has an impact (even if minor) on the prestige of FOSS including this Linux-thing and these Open-somethings. In his own words:
By awarding this Cross of Merit, the Federal Republic of Germany recognises the importance of both Free Software and Open Standards.
As for what the chap [wikipedia.org] did, he summarized for us the reason given in the mention:
According to the rationale, the Cross of Merit was awarded for my work for Free Software and Open Standards, starting from my being speaker of the GNU Project, including my very first speech, my work on the Brave GNU World, over driving the creation of Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), to the work done around the Open Document Format (ODF) and the work for Open Standards in general with a variety of hats.
So, all things considered, attaboy!
Re:Right Direction--More Money and Sex Appeal (Score:3, Insightful)
Your surprise (and assumption the rest of us are surprised) is a result of cultural conditioning. Open source developers are (in popular culture where I live) unshaven, smelly, poor, obese, socially awkward, annoying, nerdy, pimple ridden
It wold help if one of the most prominent organizations associated with Free Software didn't promote its stereotype through its founder and the most prolific public speaker...