The Open-Sorcerers
Some magicians are embracing the open-source ethos—but that doesn’t mean spilling every secret… A magician, it is said, never reveals his (or, in very rare cases, her) secrets. Unless he’s involved with open-source magic—in which case he will happily risk running afoul of the Alliance of Magicians.
Open-source magic is not about slapping magical secrets up on YouTube; there are more than enough eager teenagers and fun-ruiners willing to do that. Instead, it takes a lesson from the open-source technology activists who believe that better innovation comes through collaboration. The idea here is that magicians should be working with technologists, artists, programmers, scientists—everyone—both to create new illusions and to bring magical thinking to other disciplines. Furthermore, the technology behind those illusions should be, at least in part, freely available… Read more in SLATE, by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie…