1
edit
Changes
m
no edit summary
*There are no easy buckets (meaning like every company or organization no one will give you credit right away; credit has to be earned and one has to prove themselves as a worthy contributor)
*Strong leadership structure (major contributors and creators of the code should be strong in their leadership of their community otherwise the community will loose strength and support)<br>
<br>
Mike seemed to stress a lot on “listening to the community”. He talked about providing multiple well defined channels where people can actually come together, share ideas and contribute their code and feedback to others. But he also bought about another concern that has been around in every community not only the open source community. With this sort of open listening system per se comes the reality of camps. Camps are when people begin to form into groups and most of the times groups of people tend to agree and disagree with other groups of people. Usually these types of camps have a leader who argues their side of the argument against the other leaders of other camps; this often leads to people being one sided in their view or aligning themselves with one camp or side. Also people tend to make offensive or condescending remarks towards others in different camps that are not in agreement with their camp. Mike said the best way to get around this sort of camp propaganda or misinformation is to do the following:
*Educate yourself of the different topics out there that the camps are disagreeing over.
*Find the people who are making the smart comments and read what they have to say instead of listening to anyone and everyone.<br>
<br>
Another topic Mike touched on which was interesting was how to bring order to chaos. Again drawing parallel to the cathedral and bazaar. Mr. Beltzner said some ways of keep order amidst the chaos is to
*Create small teams, led by strong contributors and give them responsibilities to complete.
*Always offer data to elevate discussions about topics of concern or importance.
*Never treat disagreements as an adversarial notion. Instead look at it as a negotiation to attain the ultimate goal.
*Use an onion layer model for releasing (always get different levels of input from the community and analyze different ways of solving a problem before committing to a release; at least that is what I gathered from the explanation he gave)<br>
<br>
Mike Beltzner also talked about a very interesting extension which I have not heard about called CoScripter. From my understanding this is an extension that is used to record actions on the web and then share them with other. If my understanding is correct this extension writes script to automate certain web actions in order to make the user experience a quick and efficient once. Also CoScripter displays the actions in readable text format. I maybe wrong in this interpretation but this is such a useful extension to have in my opinion.<br>
<br>
'''Conclusion'''<br>
After attending these two talks, I can say most of my perceptions and views of open source were unchanged and nothing major really was told or occurred in order to obscure my view of what open source is today. I must say Dave Humphries suggestion on reading the cathedral and the bazaar was quite the best way to start of this course; because it gives a beginner a clear idea of what to expect in this sort of development environment.<br>
<br>
When comparing and contrasting the ways the two speakers conducted their talks; there seem to be more similarities than there were differences. Both speakers were clear in touching on the order to chaos points. Both shared a very great enthusiasm for what they were doing and how they were helping the community in doing what they were doing. The only noticeable difference was Mike Beltzner took a very casual and funny approach to his talk where as Benjamin Smedberg took a more formal approach to his talk. Both these speakers are ‘Gurus’ in their own right in what they do; definitely a very worth while experience for me as a beginner.<br>
<br>
This FSOSS imposium was a definite eye opener to me; it showed me the type of leaders who are out there striving to keep the open source community up and alive. It also opened me to the many different facets and possibilities there are in this open source community and how these facets and their founding principles can help in the improvement and spreading of technology, learning and knowledge to the under privileged communities of the world we live in.<br>
<br>
== Contact Info ==
