Open collaboration and the rebirth of reggae

I'm pretty deep in the code most times, it seems. I wear my software engineer hat on and off the job, at least in terms of how I approach thinking about many problems and solutions in life.

Every so often, though, I have the pleasure of working on a project that seems to transcend the very broad field of creating software while at the same time creating a touch stone to the aspect of software that I am most enthusiastic about, open source collaboration.

Here is a beautiful thing that I helped create, and which has now been shipped for you to enjoy - Reggae Revival: Inside Jamaica’s New Music Movement - Vogue

Aside from the happy spirit of collaboration that was very present in the office during the engineering cycles on this, I also noticed that there are phrases in the piece that dovetail so nicely with what I believe to be the open source ethos.

Here is one such quote, which illuminates perfectly my ideal state of working, and really, of living.

"The return to reggae is not just a return to live music but also to band music, and considered against dancehall culture, this aspect is significant. In dancehall, larger-than-life individuals spar to be the biggest game in town, to "win the clash." Roots reggae is group music: The individual parts that make it up are almost incomprehensively simple; it’s what happens when you put them together that it becomes mind-bendingly complex."

So, so many places in the craft of coding and collaborating that this speaks to. And really that is only the beginning. Take a look at the piece and I hope you will come away with some of that feeling as well.