Let’s start with a quick musical quiz. Who wrote this 1983 pop hit? I’ll give you a hint — it’s not the person who sings it.
You can see the songwriting credits here (assuming that link survives time), but for most of you it won’t be a useful clue.
Those of you who grew up in Philadelphia in the 1980s might recognize the name Robert Hazard, leader of Robert Hazard and the Heroes, author of Escalator of Life, Change Reaction, and Out of the Blue, and, of course, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Robert’s popularity never grew much out of the Philly/NJ area, but Cyndi Lauper’s version of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun sold a zillion copies worldwide and touched a lot of people who had never heard of Robert Hazard, and never will.
I have something in common with him — someone has given my work far more exposure than I ever expected it to get. (Another thing we have in common is growing up in the same small Philadelphia suburb. But without Cyndi Lauper’s involvement, that’s just trivia.)
I was surprised to learn from http://pypi-ranking.info that posix_ipc, one of my open source packages, is currently in the top .5% (½ of 1%) of the most downloaded on PyPI. Now, posix_ipc might be good at what it does, but it fills a tiny niche that’s nowhere near big enough to justify all of those 1.7-million-and-counting downloads. Why is it a top 1% download? Because it has become part of something much bigger — the massively popular OpenStack.
OpenStack didn’t have to rewrite portions of posix_ipc (like Cyndi did with Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, with Robert’s permission). They haven’t yet made a video of it that includes a nod to the Marx Brothers (like Cyndi did, with or without Robert’s permission). And as far as I know, OpenStack has yet to be nominated for a Grammy. But they have shown me the value of putting something out into the world, because you never know where it will end up.
So thanks, OpenStack! And thanks to Robert Hazard for music I enjoyed growing up (and still do). R.I.P, Robert.