Re: [chat] Re: The Linux Article Of The Year

[Ken Foskey <foskey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 2003-04-07 at 14:57, Marcel Kunath wrote:
> In 2000 (after 2 years using suse and frequenting the mailing list) I was 
> giving feedback to SuSE regarding their admin tool yast and what features it 
> lacked. I got told off and their reply was basically "nobody would ever want 
> such feature". Two years later yast2 had the feature implemented I was 
> asking for. By that time I had lost interest in SuSE. It's not the fact that 
> it took them two years to implement it. It was the fact that they didn't 
> acknowledge that a user made a implementation request they would eventually 
> get around to.

This is a problem in many spaces.  I pushed for a particular solution at
work and now no-one remembers it was my idea.  Funny how the managers
had that good idea :-)  This occurs in all spaces and it is just human
nature that we have to live with.

> The developer community has to realize there are two ways to contribute. The 
> standard phrase: "go code it yourself" just doesn't apply anymore since 
> Linux is not a field made up of code monkeys only. There is the people who 
> can code and then there is the people who are technologically literate but 
> don't want to code but plan, come up with ideas and give feedback to the 
> coders, and help manage development issues (e.g. HR, project management, 
> documentation, etc.). 

This is an important part of development, unfortunately developers tend
to not be interested.  If you actively volunteer your time to organise
that documentation then it will be received well,  alternatively if you
provide patches to the documentation it will be received well.

Jeff mentioned in the OpenSource talk that there was one person just
going through code adding comment patches to explain what is going on. 
That was received very favourably by the community, everything helps.

The major issue is whether you are willing to commit a regular slice of
time to a particular project.  If you want something to succeed then you
have to make a noise and just start working on it.  I started simply, I
must admit after the first month I felt ignored. A couple of years on I
now have a free reign on the source repository, I still feel ignored
because my patches take time to make it into the repository sometimes. I
just have to deal with it.  Others have their particular axe to grind
with OOo and my stuff is not important to them.  It will eventually be
done I have to be happy with that.

There are better people than me out there with better implementations
and better ideas but I commit my time regularly and go through patches
and make comments.  Other developers can rely on a response from me for
approvals etc.  Get involved for a couple of hours per week on a regular
basis in ANY capacity. Be there and the community will rally around you.

Volunteer, pay for your free software with time!
 
-- 
Thanks
KenF
OpenOffice.org developer