//_UPDATE_: The situation has been sorted out, the project is back online normally http://bit.ly/chartjs
// Yesterday I wrote (http://bit.ly/g-chartjs) about Chart.js, a new library for javascript/canvas-based charts. A day later, the site is down with a note shown in the screenshot, basically explaining how the developer’s employer doesn’t like the idea of #OpenSource.
Here’s the outcome so far after a few hours:
– The code was removed from the original Github repository but of course has been copied (here http://bit.ly/chartjs-fork along with at least 92(!) forks) and it’s not about to be ever deleted completely
– The angry commentators at Hacker News are already looking for the name of the company http://bit.ly/chartjs-hackernews
This is bound to get some press soon…
That said: this wasn’t a ground-breaking piece of technology. There is no case that it was any kind of competitive advantage for the company (plus the whole IP issue is ambiguous as this was a university project of the developer). The company had nothing to lose with this being released as open source, only to gain from the publicity of one of their employees releasing a successful open source project.
But if you don’t know what the internet is, you’re bound to act like an idiot…
Tags: OpenSource
The problem is representation. If you post as an employee, you are the face of that company and whatever you say/write will be taken as "official". Be it an article or code, it's a difficult situation to be in.
So it's not that the company doesn't know anything, but rather they're aggressively watching their collective back. This is the norm in the tech industry (big companies, not startups) and it's going to take more than an angry Reddit to change it. Good luck.
+Corey Birnbaum There is no issue of representation, the developer never posted where he works.
In any case, seems like the issue is resolved, everything is back on http://www.chartjs.org/ !!
They should be punished for that
Chart.js looks great! Thanks.