A Loooong time ago I wrote about a beer company in Europe that put their recipe out in the world as an ‘open source beer recipe.’ I called the story "Free Beer For Geeks," playing off the notion that open source meant free — in a sense. This was when I was first learning about open source and it was one of the earlier stories I did that made me realize the issues surrounding open source could turn into a book.
Today I see that Lawrence Lessig did a small piece on open source beer for Wired magazine. It’s well written, goes down well, etc etc. I like to think that maybe he saw my article and used some of my reporting.
I often wonder why Lessig hasn’t written an "open source" book already. He has written his shares of book, but they focus on the narrow part of open source that centers around culture. In doing so, he brushes other aspects of Open Source to the side and misses a larger picture. Although, it’s easy to argue that his battle is the most dramatic of open source battles because it’s something everyone can relate to.