OSCON: Open Source Coders 'Lazy' About Social Web Services

At the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON), Gnome Foundation executive director Stormy Peters told developers, "When it comes to Web services, we've gotten lazy." She added, "A lot of people have made sacrifices so that we could all use free software ... but when it comes to Web services, we don't have those freedoms."

Peters also warned attendees that they don't have control or the rights to data that they provide to commercial Web services, like e-mail and social networking sites, and called for open-source alternatives.