Comments on: Open source contributors in Asia

By: yukichi

yukichi — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:24:41 +0000

Hi,

Gen, you can make a wiki to share OSS information in Japan on Wikia if you want!

By: gregory

gregory — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 10:06:25 +0000

and i will throw into the mix concepts of individuality and rebelliousness, more pronounced in the west than in asia, at least for a few more years… open source everything grew out of concepts of sharing, innovation, and rebelling against the system (microsoft primarily) … the sort of mind is in the young in asia, but not so much in their older brothers

and jigar, i can definitely relate to the internet speed, i am on my reliance usb modem at about 8 KBPS

and to kartik… um, no, i will keep quiet

enjoy, gregory

By: Ke Zhang

Ke Zhang — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:10:57 +0000

As a Chinese citizen, I think one of the big reason for lack of open source activities in China is job security, and a sense of security in general. Pressure is extremely high in modern day China, and when people feel threatened, they tend to give less. It’s the same reason for the lack of philanthropic activities. Language, culture and internet access are not as big issues as one might think. In China, college educated programmers most likely would be able to communicate in English, and they do know about western culture. Internet access is pretty good in cities, not so good in more rural areas, but most programmers are in the cities.

By: Jigar Shah

Jigar Shah — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 02:52:03 +0000

I agree to kartik. Its more about awareness and definitely Good internet Access. I am a software Developer but still i don’t have very good Internet access at home. Its limited generally on how many MBs you can download; speed is inconsistent and not really Broadband . If we try to get into 2MB lines its really expensive.

Second reason i believe (Not so sure) is because these are developing countries(India and China). People here worry about ‘will they get anything if they work on OpenSource?’ Working on OSS is considered as “Social Service” rather than opportunity to work on something really different and grow tech knowledge. again i say Awareness amongst developer and companies is a major issue. Software Company can definitely promote open source as not so “Free service”

By: Kartik Mistry

Kartik Mistry — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:25:49 +0000

I think Indians can speak better (right) English than US of A people So, not a issue of Language here.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 08:38:35 +0000

Very interesting topic!

But what’s the “cultural barrier” mentioned here exactly? I don’t think language is really the biggest problem, indeed, since I met many developers in Taiwan who are able to speak quite good English, but I admit I don’t really get the “cultural barrier” problem…