@Shaun,

That is really interesting. I never looked at Github that way. I jumped on the github bandwagon for purely selfish, web-culture reasons and for the purpose of having a code portfolio (even if I'm a little embarrassed by it). This split topic I'd like to see maybe in another thread is about giving full legal names to web services. If anyone watched the PS4 reveal last night, you might have noticed that PS4 is giving up gamertags (read: aliases) for full names to easily integrate with other social platforms. Even though I'm late to the game, for the last year I've been using solely my full name as username (where I can get it) so, frankly, I grab it before any of the other Michael Schofield's can.

Sorry for the digression,

Michael
ns4lib.com, etc.

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of MJ Ray
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 9:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] GitHub Myths (was thanks and poetry)

Shaun Ellis <[log in to unmask]>
> * Myth #1 : GitHub creates a barrier to entry.

That's a fact, not a myth.  Myself, I won't give GitHub my full legal name and I suspect there are others who won't.  So, we're not welcome there and if we lie to register, all our work would be subject to deletion at an arbitrary future point.

There's a couple of other things in the terms which aren't simple, too.

[...]
> * Myth #4 : GitHub is monopolizing open source software development.
>  > "... to its unfortunate centralizing of so much free/open  > source 
> software on one platform.)"
> 
> Convergence is not always a bad thing. GitHub provides a great, free 
> service with lots of helpful collaboration tools beyond version control.
>   It's natural that people would flock there, despite having lots of 
> other options.

Whether or not it's a deliberate monopolising attempt, I don't think that's the full reason.  It's not only natural effect.  There's a sneaky lock-in effect of having one open tool (git hosting) which is fairly easy to move in and out and interoperate with, linked to other closed tools (such as their issues tracker and their non-git pull requests system) which are harder to move out or interoperate.

Use github if you like.  Just don't expect everyone to do so.

Hope that explains,
--
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
http://koha-community.org supporter, web and library systems developer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire (including development) at http://www.software.coop/