Jun

We want your thoughts on the future of the Open Source Beer Project

Posted by josh Published in Future, Collaboration

It’s been a while since we’ve written about the Open Source Beer Project, but don’t think that we’ve forgotten about you or our Open Source Beer concept. We’ve been monitoring the blogosphere and people are still talking about this unique project.

Flying Dog has been kicking around a bunch of ideas recently but before we announce anything, we wanted to get your thoughts on what’s next for Open Source Beer. How do you think we should move forward with this project? We really want to involve as many brewers and Open Source enthusiasts as we can before we fully decide which direction to continue in.

Here are a few questions that might help you respond.
• Any ideas on where to start collaborating on a new version of the Open Source Beer Project (v2.0)?
• How would you better involve the brewing/open source community to make this an even more collaborative effort?
• What do you envision as a v1.1 of the Doppelbock?

Nothing is out of bounds here - feel free to praise us, scold us, but please try to keep comments constructive. We look forward to working with everyone towards future releases of the Open Source Beer Project.

10 Responses

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Hitch says,
in 6-10-2008 @ 08:17:56

• Any ideas on where to start collaborating on a new version of the Open Source Beer Project (v2.0)?

Well, first off - in the spirit of Open-Source-ness, you start with the recipe you used for the last version. Maybe with suggestions for improvements.

Something that I think would be really cool - have different recipes for different styles of beer. Have an open-source stout, an open-source doppelbock, and OS IPA, etc.
You’d obviously limit the ones you actually bottle to those you think stand out the most - but that gives fans of a particular style a good reason to really try and amp up their favorite.

• How would you better involve the brewing/open source community to make this an even more collaborative effort?

Well, for the most part the thing I think you need to keep in mind is: release early, release often. Keep talking about the beer. Have a wiki! Make updates. Encourage updates. Since beer takes a “long” time to make, relatively speaking - and since the ingredients are tangible and increasingly expensive, discussion of the scientific basis behind particular recipe modifications should particularly be encouraged.
It’s important to remember - like Open Source Software, you’re the gatekeepers of the recipe, so what you say goes. But there should be lively discussion about why, how, and what.

brantc says,
in 6-18-2008 @ 18:56:51

I use basecamp http://www.basecamphq.com/
It is great for collaborating. Has chat rooms, white boards, you can upload files and much more

josh says,
in 6-24-2008 @ 13:08:38

Yeah, but BaseCamp is a pay service, which is not something you find in the Open Source world.

Hop Talk » Blog Archive » Wild Dog Collaborator says,
in 9-15-2008 @ 18:04:51

[…] Well, I finally got around to picking up a bottle. True to form, I’ve managed to do this just as the guys at Flying Dog are getting ready for another go ’round. They’re talking about Open Source Beer Project 2.0. (I always seem to get things just as the newer, better version is coming out.) From Flying Dog’s website: Collaborator has a full body with a sweet malt profile and a slight roast character. The complete recipe and printable labels are available for download at http://www.opensourcebeerproject.com/. We want to thank everyone who contributed to creating this beer, it truly was a collaboration. […]

siblog says,
in 10-2-2008 @ 18:03:12

Just came across this project today….Sounds really cool

Any ideas on where to start collaborating on a new version of the Open Source Beer Project (v2.0)?
Wikis are a great place for documentation and collaboration. pbwiki http://pbwiki.com/ is a free and great place to start a wiki. Along with Twitter I recommend that you check out Pownce who (IMO) has a better community base. The Pownce community has been part of similar user-input projects like this.

How would you better involve the brewing/open source community to make this an even more collaborative effort?
It would be awesome if you could collaborate with the Open Source Projects and create a beer with their names included. (Ex. Linux Lager, GNU Amber, etc). Another idea: Diggnation sponsorship. They really are not the open source community but it is the closely-related technology community and they just recently did a taping of an episode at Michelob and took some tour videos. Just some ideas

See you in a week at GABF 2008

siblog says,
in 10-2-2008 @ 18:12:12

Also….free and open source BaseCamp alternative
http://goplan.info/

da6d says,
in 12-9-2008 @ 00:16:53

What about hosting the ’source’ of the beer on code.google.com? It supports several common licenses…. speaking of, what license is used?

SquareTurd says,
in 3-21-2009 @ 09:42:50

As a long time proponent and advocate of Open Source Software (I’ve made a good living from it for the last 9 years or so at GeoComm, Northrop Grumman, and Decision Sciences) I am intrigued by the concept of applying Open Source concepts to beer. I have suggestions.

First, work hard to create a tight group. Make sure people easily identify members of the OSBP. Create a logo and encourage members to put in on web sites, print it, stick it on bottles, hang it in their garages, put it on their cars, make T-shirts. Everyone should be quickly recognized as members of the group. Remember, the advantage of open source is a huge group of people working toward a common goal.

Second, educate yourselves on the pro’s and con’s of Open Source. You can learn a lot from the foundation people like Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman laid.Learn the licenses and think about what they try to accomplish. This will be necessary as Open Source Beer matures and people attempt to take advantage of your work instead of enhancing it.

Third, don’t be hypocrites! Use open source software. Install Linux, use Firefox/Mozilla, create files in OpenOffice, tell your IT staff at work to look into MySQL and Apache. If your scared of the committment, do what I did and set up your computer for dual-boot. You can easily switch between operating systems. When you’re selecting a provider for your web sites, blogs, etc, find out what their systems use.

Finally, keep in mind that Open Source is the best technique for creating software and (eventually) for creating profits — MySQL sold to Sun for 1 Billion last year. The goal of open source is simple — high quality software that opens up choices for users. The profits are a secondary side-effect. If your goals are for high-quality beer with choices for many tastes then you’ll do fine.

One question I have for the group. How do you plan to enforce your ‘licensing’ for recipes? If someone uses your recipe and goes commercial how can you stop them? Also the inverse, how can you protect yourself from being falsely accused of breaking the open source committment? (its probably hard to reverse-engineer beer).

You’re speaking, and we’re listening. | Beer says,
in 4-7-2009 @ 05:57:04

[…] Have any comments about where you want the Open Source Beer Project to go? Leave them here or on our original post from last week. […]

Brew says,
in 11-19-2009 @ 03:49:25

Google wave and/or google Docs are good tools to collaborate. Not OpenSource, but they are free and made for collaborating