Prometheus and Open Source

I was recently reading parts of the Greek mythology. I was amazed to see the resemblance between Prometheus and the open source programmers of today. Prometheus is credited with two great accomplishments. He created humankind out of clay. He stole fire from Zeus and gave it to common people. Prometheus was a Titan, a powerful deity in Greek mythology. He was noted for his almost limitless knowledge. He was a master of architecture, mathematics, navigation, medicine, and metallurgy. He was the champion of humans and freely shared his knowledge with common folk. Zeus, the chief and most powerful of the Gods, was angered by Prometheus’s sharing of his knowledge. It gave too much power into the hands of common people. As punishment, Zeus withheld fire from Prometheus and common people. Through trickery, Prometheus went to Mt. Olympus and stole fire from the sun. He shared fire with the people. Again Zeus was enraged. He tied Prometheus to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains. He sent a huge eagle every morning to pick at the liver of Prometheus, but during the night the liver was made whole again. The eagle returned every day...

Today, millions of open source programmers are collectively busy airing the fire Prometheus once started. And the fire lives on!On this note, I'm strongly reminded of a beautiful poem by Gurudev Tagore- 

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."