Reflections on Power

I wanted to share with folks a few of my personal reflections on the nature of power. To start with, it's important to understand what specifically I mean by the word power. Of course Wikipedia is our best friend when it comes questions like that. If you look there to help understand what power is, you'll see that it says "Power has many meanings, most of which imply (a capacity for) control or force." At the time of this writing, there was also a very powerful message at the top of the page, "You can help Wikimedia change the world!" Indeed! It is on this sociological aspect of power that I'd like to focus because it has interesting implications for open communities as well for the individuals in them. Of course power is definitely about control and force; even in the sociological sense, power is both something that constrains (i.e., controls the results of an action) as well as something that enables (i.e., forces the results of an action in particular direction). In the exercise of power there is a balance between coercion and influence, with the ultimate purpose being to bring about change (or perhaps to prevent it).

A particularly powerful analogy for me is to think of power as flame that is fed by the force of living things. As introspective conscious entities, we're in a unique position to contemplate power in this pure form. I visualize power as a flame into which I feed my thoughts and from that a manifest entity with a life of its own takes shape. That entity can and does exist independently of me, but I feed it and without anyone like me, it would vanish in the blink of an eye, just as would a flame without its fuel, the oxygen to consume that fuel, and the conditions in which to renew and drive the process. And just as a flame has power over its environment, so too, power has power over us. It's an extremely important principle to keep in mind that the extent to which one tries to coerce power, it will take control.


So I see power as a flame that should be held forth with a gently cupped hand both as something to carefully nurture and protect and as something with a life of its own to be kept separate and at a distance lest it consume more than one might intend. It's is not something to be clutched with a greedy fist and held close, for surely it will consume the holder and then it will escape entirely or cease to exist. Like the old saying "If you love something, set it free; if it comes back it's yours; if it doesn't it never was." When you share your power freely with other like minded people, the power grows in unexpected ways. Beware of those who will clutch and grab for power, and be most wary of that person being yourself. Greed is a basic human failing, don't ever assume you are above it. As the saying goes, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I believe the Eclipse community specifically, the open source movement in general, and the internet as a whole, are incredibly powerful forces that will do more to change our global society than perhaps any political force ever has. The internet has brought down barriers to the flow of information and to the spread of ideas. It's ignited a new type of flame, the open community, that we all feed. We cannot help but influence it and we should be particularly wary of those who will coerce it for the gains of a small few. Rest assured that those who are too enamored by power will be consumed by it. A global force manifested in the internet is sweeping the planet and it empowers us all. The flow of information is no longer controlled by the editor of a journal , the publisher of a book, or the CEO of a corporation. We all have direct control over the information that flows around the globe, often within milliseconds of when we produce it. Others can rapidly build on these ideas and of course in the end, the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts.

So nurture power, exercise it transparently, and share it wisely. Individuals control the world.

Fall Musings

The EclipseCon submissions are picking up their pace though no doubt there are quite a few people waiting until the last minutes to sneak in their submissions. Speaking of sneaking, look who was sneaking around my pond this lovely sunny fall morning.


I took these pictures out of my bedroom window. There were actually two of them, but I didn't get them both on camera.


Darin mentioned that foxes might help take care of my diversity problem, i.e., the mink that was eating all my frogs. Ironically, that problem took care of itself: she electrocuted herself under that rock shortly after last week's photo was taken. I wonder if there is anyone else I could convince to crawl under that rock, but clearly I digress...

With regard to EclipseCon, I highly encourage folks to think about giving short talks. I know you don't get free attendance for those, but they are very little work to prepare, they will given you a chance to talk about the cool things you are doing, and of course, most importantly, they will give everyone else a chance to find out more about you and your cool work. This is likely to help you establish contacts with like minded folks and meeting people is half the fun at EclipseCon. There are a great many short talk slots and not so many submissions for them, so the opportunity is ripe and I highly recommend folks planning to attend give a little more thought not just to attending but also to participating. Don't be shy. Help make this the most diverse conference ever. Show us your colors.


I'm looking forward to the runtime summit too. Like the Eclipse platform, EMF is well recognized as a basis for implementing tools, but it's not so well recognized as providing a very flexible and powerful runtime. EMF's core runtime even works stand alone with no dependencies on any other Eclipse runtime jars and the 2.2 runtime works with Foundation 1.1, so it can even be used on small devices. I think it's important that Eclipse's technologies be recognized as a powerful basis for runtimes as well as for tools, and this summit can help with that. It's one of the fallacies of our industry that there are tools and there are runtimes, and never the twain shall meet. Think of how much more productive developers could be if they can use common technology as the basis of both.

I'm also excited because Tom, Boris, and I are investigating supporting the core EMF runtime and the EMF edit framework that works with GWT. Tom is making very good progress. He's one of my favorite people at Eclipse because he's so incredibly helpful. I think he sets a really high bar as one of Eclipse's outstanding citizens. Check out his offer to help provide and maintain a 3.3 language pack. He's like a ray of sunshine on a frosty morning.


I've also been keeping in eye on the DTP newsgroup. I'm actually I'm a closet newsgroup junkie. Oops, I guess it's best to not say that out loud. In any case, I watched with interest the thread by Jeff Ramsdale about his offer to develop an EMF Open Data Access component. I think this will help feed EMF data into BIRT, so I'll bet a great many people will derive value from that.

Closer to home, the new Mint component is being provisioned now and there is yet another new proposal for a Temporality component. I'm very pleased that the modeling community is growing so incredibly fast. It seems to me that diversity breeds more diversity as I watch more and more people wanting to get involved in the rapidly growing set of components. I also had a few private conversations with companies looking to join the party, so I expect the pace of growth the pick up further. Eclipse is a great place to be!

Kudos to Eclipse's IP Team

David Sciamma submitted Contribution Questionaire 1862 today for the contributed code base of the new EMFT component that will provide support for graphical Ecore editing. I'm really very excited about it!

Imagine my pleasant surprise when it was approved via the parallel IP process in less than 1 hour. Incredible! Cheers to the IP team!


Don't over do it though!



For personal reasons, I won't be able to got to OSSummit Asia after all. So Crusty (guess which one is Crusty) won't get to meet MLP until another trip.

Coping with Diversity

Like the modeling community, orchids are extremely diverse. They represent the largest family of flowering plants, which might surprise you since they seem so exotic and rare. It surprises me that the modeling community has yielded no EclipseCon 2008 submissions yet! But I'm hopeful the community will soon produce some blossoms because, as if by good omen, my Cattleya just went into bloom the other day. Not only does it look lovely, it smells wonderful too!


There was a heavy frost last night, so that pretty much does in the last of the late bloomers. Come on modelers, don't be late bloomers like my Delphiniums.


You'll be frosted if you miss the November 19th deadline that's rapidly approaching!


And then, not unlike my Euonymus, you're likely to turn scarlet from embarrassment for being left out in the cold.


So be first and propose lots. It's a predatory world out there.


I was shocked to find a mink at my pond just a few hours ago! This sure explains a lot though. The missing koi, the dwindling frogs (note what's hanging out of her mouth), and the sparsity of this year's tadpole population. See the rock behind her? She just dove into the water and has her burrow in there!


Oh my goodness. I can't just send the dogs to chase her away like the heron either. I'm not sure what to do about her. At least she hasn't chewed a hole in the liner like that darned muskrat did a few years back.

Ah, diversity, it's a double edged sword...

A Bug and Some Spooks

As I threatened in my previous blog, here is the result of this year's pumpkin carving extravaganza.


Frightening creations aren't they?! This bug is a distant relative of our much less scary bugzilla mascot. I expect these creations, along with the smoke machine and the moans and groans sound effects, will scare all the little kiddies away so that we'll have lots of candies left over for ourselves. Fortunately we had specialized pumpkin carving tools that are very dull so we didn't need to make any claims against our accidental death and dismemberment insurance. I do wonder though what a thumb would be worth. After all, the space bar is very big so you can hit it with either thumb...

I managed to get the changes for 207671 committed. This generalizes the support for attribute access and even allows attributes to be updated. I could imagine that this might be used to support locking and unlocking resources. I hope it's all in good shape in time for next week's M3 build...

We're also starting a discussion about creating a modeling package for all the avid modelers of the world.

I found the article "Empowering the Masses with 'Oslo'" interesting. I thought Eclipse already empowered the masses. Maybe they'll use EMF4NET and make it all EPL? But then again, I ate that yummy looking shiny red apple the nice old lady brought to the door earlier and it seems to be making me a little woozy...

The Garden is in Decline but the Community is in an Upswing

The end of October is quickly approaching, so it's almost time to carve up the pumpkins. I planted my own too late this year and had to buy them, and because it was so dry, the pumpkin selection is kind of poor. Expect some photos of my carving talents in the days to come! But don't expect me to be cackling over a cauldron any time soon.

The garden is almost done for the year. If forecasts prove correct, we'll get a killing frost on Monday. But there are still some beautiful things out there.


Bernd sent me a link to this song that I'm sure many will find as funny as I did; I had to wipe the tears from my eyes. Note however that if you're inclined to see blasphemy where others see innocent humor, don't bother going; I can't imagine anyone taking offense, but I don't like to offend anyone.

I'd like to brag about the modeling community just a bit. There are just so many cool things going on! It's like we're having a great party and everyone wants to come to it. The contributors are schooling of fish:


We have new components in the works for model-based web services, graphical Ecore editing, textual Ecore editing, and improved OCL integration. And soon I expect we'll even have EMF for C#, and some excellent tools for improved JDT integration.

I strongly encourage the modeling community to come forth with their EclipseCon proposals. Tutorials are free this year so expect lots of attendees. The modeling-specific tutorials will be available in eight two hour slots, so our community can mix and match to suit their specialized interests. Don't wait until the last minute! I want to hear all about what other people are doing so I'll avoid using up any slots myself. Don't be shy, we all want to see you:


At the risk of having yet another interrupt mechanism to destroy my productivity, I wanted to advertise the fact that Nick has convinced me to hang out on the IRC channel for #eclipse-modeling. Hopefully folks will hang out and help each other. So far it's been pretty quiet, so I sure hope I'm not opening the floodgates. Sometimes I feel like a conductor when what I really want most is to play a musical instrument myself...

Jane You Ignorant Slug

Many of you will likely recognize the blog's title as the sanitized start of a totally unprofessional Saturday Night Live "Point Counter Point" rant between Chevy Chase and Jane Curtin that was more focused on personal attacks than on addressing actual issues like mature adults. Of course it was funny on Saturday Night Live, but I find it distressing to see the analog of it in Eclipse's blogosphere this week. I suppose some might even consider the Release Review Theme Song to be in this vein; I hope that's not the case and that certainly wasn't the intent. I think it's a testament to Bjorn's professionalism how he reacted to the obvious malcontent of the community in his usual constructive way.

All this reminds me of this little nipper I encountered on one of my dives in January. As I got ready to take his picture, he decided to dart out at me to nip my hand.


I considered it a personal attack and made a few threatening gestures in return. I suppose I had violated his space and he felt justified in asserting his dominance in that space. Be careful little fishy!

Now back to the issue at hand. I'll be the first to admit that Bjorn and I have had our differences. But guess what folks, intelligent people will often have differences of opinion and passions will often get the better of us. The more professional among us will use such things as a learning opportunity to see a perspective that might otherwise escape us, and will try to keep the heated debated focused on the subject matter rather than on denigrating the opposing party. Before folks feel compelled to knock me down off my high horse, don't worry, I often fall off all on my own. I'm far more likely to be swayed by emotions than most.

With regard to the issue in question, is Eclipse free, I don't agree with all the arguments Bjorn put forth but I certainly see he has a point, even if it does involve splitting hairs. Sometimes splitting hairs can be informative and even entertaining. The argument was made that by his reasoning even free beer isn't free, because you have to drink it. That's right; it might cause weight gain, and that might have health implications, the treatment for which might not be entirely free. And the over zealous free beer guzzler who killed people driving home might find that the family of those he killed doesn't consider the beer to have been free. And in some countries in the world, the folks who supplied the free beer might find that not only did the free beer cost them money but they're also held responsible for supplying it so copiously that folks go home drunk. In any case, the debate is an interesting one, and I don't see why it's necessary for it to degrade into a personal assault.

The community needs to remember that Bjorn as a representative of the Eclipse Management Office has the unenviable task of being the rule enforcer so while it's always easy to find fault with the messenger, as professionals we ought to know better. As a call to action, committers should take note that as a community it takes almost no advantage of the fact that we have five voting board members who can and do work in our interests to effect change in Eclipse's policies and processes. I doubt that most folks even realize we exist and likely would be shocked to understand just how much sway we have on the Eclipse Board. Keep in mind that many large corporations are paying $250,000 for a seat at the table, not to mention the $1,000,000 they are obligated to invest in active contributors. The committer community has five of such influential seats serving their interests and yet when was the last time someone had anything constructive to suggest on our newsgroup?

We're all responsible for making Eclipse better, so while ranting about frustrations is only human, acting on those frustrations constructively in order to harness the underlying passions for the purpose of effecting real change is what professionals do.