A person might ask why anyone would want to work on an Open Source project. I’m sure that there are as many reasons as there are people. For myself – I’m working on bitweaver for purely selfish reasons. There are a lot of things that I need to learn.

In my life – I’ve had several professions and accomplished a lot. Most of the time though - doing things my way turned out to be the hard way. In 2002 the magazine Solid Solutions Advanced was launched and I became a member of the Advisory Board. This position was on a gratis basis - but I did find it very stimulating. That allowed me to get several articles published and play "The Answer Man" game for readers with problems (meaning - I did a lot of research). One of the things I realized was that the SolidWorks community had some problems. There was far too much information available - in too many places - for anyone to keep up with. Search engines are nice - but what the community really needed was a Portal. I spent a lot of time and money trying to have one created that worked the way I thought it should.

Later, I stumbled on Open Source software and eventually found ))((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and bitweaver and TikiWiki((. I thought the software was fantastic. It did most of the things that I needed and a lot more. The only problem was that customizing it was a royal pain and required a knowledge level far beyond what I possessed. There was a lot to learn and I was running out of money faster than I could learn it. Eventually - my interest in Website Design grew and I became one of the developers – helping in any way I could.

All of that was quite a while before Spiderr released SpiderCore on ))((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and bitweaver and TikiWiki((. I tried it and saw the ease in which a virgin copy of ))PhpBB(( was incorporated into ))((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and bitweaver and TikiWiki((. It allowed the addition of most software packages with minimal changes. That was a far cry from the 1000+ man/hours needed by ))((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and bitweaver and TikiWiki(( in its “All-or-Nothing” approach. The split with ))((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and ((bitweaver and bitweaver and TikiWiki(( was not a big surprise when it occurred – and bitweaver was born. I followed.

It has been an enjoyable ride. This is the best learning environment that anyone could dream of and – as a learning tool – I highly recommend it. By contributing some time and effort - I get to work with a top-notch team on a worthwhile project. I have to say that everyone has been supportive - they are even forgiving when mistakes are made. These people are my friends.

StarRider (s-r on IRC)
Lee L. Bell Jr.