William, This is both thought-provoking and insightful. And in my opinion, oh so true. You should clean up a few of the post's incomplete sentences and post this on a blog or somewhere where everyone can see it, because it's something that really needed to be said.
I'm passing this on to GoLUG. SteveT On Wednesday 04 May 2011 17:05:53 William L. Thomson Jr. wrote: > When it comes to computers, the lines between hobbyists and > professionals is really blurry. To a point I lean more toward hobbyists > than professionals, with the following three examples as my argument > there. Though likely can produce more than 3. > > Was Steve Wozniak a hobbyist or professional when he was building > computers in Steve Jobs's garage? Sure he was working for HP, but was > building computers a profession or hobby for him? What was the result of > that? Apple > > Lets take a more modern example, which is covered in a recent movie, > that I have yet to see. Was Mark Zuckerberg a hobbyist or professional? > What was the result of those efforts? Facebook > > How about another example more specific to this list and users group. > Was Linus Torvalds a professional or hobbyist? Keep in mind it was > supposed to be called Freak. What was the result of Linus efforts? Linux > > What ever happened with the professional interest behind IBM's OS/2? > That was never developed by nor targeted for sale to hobbyists, just > professionals. > > It has come up a few times before if the JaxLUG caters to hobbyist or > professionals. Which in that process hobbyists tend to get discounted > and discarded as unimportant. When if anything professionals should be > discounted more. Quite many things with computers, and surely with Linux > started out more as a hobby than profession, later turning into a > profession. Thus if this was a chicken/egg scenario, the hobbyist > clearly must come before the professionals. > > From my own experience, I feel I might have been more creative and > thinking out of the box. When I was less of a professional. The more you > look to what you do as having to provide a return on investment, getting > paid for your efforts. Your creativity can go out the door a little bit. > After all your not doing it out of passion, but out of the need or want > for money. > > Not to mention with regard to the JaxLUG, hobbyists likely have more to > contribute and benefit than professionals. After all professionals want > that to relate to their work, pocket book, etc more than a hobbyists. > Not to underestimate or discount the importance or value of > professionals. I am just tired of hobbyists being seen as a negative > thing. There are likely considerably more hobbyists than professionals > end of the day. Thus its a bigger market, with greater potential. > > Finally its not like this area is known for its technology or > creativity. I think we should look more at what made that happen in > others areas. It wasn't the contributions and things coming from the > professional world so much as others. Lets keep that in mind, and not be > on a professional high horse :) > > Anyway just some food for thought, and discussion. > > P.S. > Can't believe a movie was made on Facebook, where is the one on Apple or > Google or other companies that have effected many more lives on a daily > basis? Clearly pop culture wins again :( > > Really good movie to see, the "Pirates of Silicon Valley". Or the old > documentary by Walter Cronkite called "Silicon Valley: A 100 Year > Renaissance" Or "OS Revolution" which was played at a JaxLUG meeting > back in 2003 I believe. Likely many others, and if others have > suggestions welcome to mention them. I highly recommend the first two, > and might seem a bit dated. Bit the history remains and doesn't change. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive http://marc.info/?l=jaxlug-list&r=1&w=2 RSS Feed http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml Unsubscribe [email protected]
