Please cancel all emails to me. Tkanks On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 7:03 AM, drew jensen <drewjensen.in...@gmail.com>wrote:
> On Fri, 2012-03-30 at 23:21 -0400, Rob Weir wrote: > > On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 12:35 PM, drew jensen < > drewjensen.in...@gmail.com>wrote: > > > > > On Thu, 2012-03-29 at 09:04 -0400, Rob Weir wrote: > > > > On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 8:31 AM, Kevin Grignon < > > > kevingrignon...@gmail.com>wrote: > > > > > > > > > Rob, > > > > > > > > > > Sounds like we can appeal to contributors intrinsic and extrinsic > > > > > motivation. > > > > > > > > > > Another newbie question: Does OO have any experience recruiting > > > > > non-technical volunteers. Many disciplines outside coding can have > an > > > > > impact on the offering. Product management, UX, ID, training, > visual > > > > > design, marketing, communications, etc. How might we position > > > ourselves as > > > > > open product development? A wider net would attract the diverse > skills > > > that > > > > > could really make the effort a success long term. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > See this page here, which our central "how can I help page": > > > > http://incubator.apache.org/openofficeorg/get-involved.html > > > > > > > > So we need and value contributors in a wide range of disciplines, not > > > just > > > > technical ones. > > > > > > > Hola Rob, Kevin > > > > > > Just an aside, if you will. At this years FOSDEM there was a panel > > > discussion consisting of a number of the community managers. Included > > > IIRC was openSUSE, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu (in this case the speaker was > > > specifically from the LoCo team project, not Ubuntu overall)...and a > > > couple others whose affiliation I can not recall. > > > > > > One topic, which would be germane here, was on recruiting contributors. > > > > > > Across the panel the participants felt that finding and retaining > > > _quality_ non-coding contributors has proven to be more difficult then > > > coders. Unfortunately that was the extent of the topic discussion, they > > > all agreed but not a single one went into Why they thought this was, or > > > what particular obstacles, procedural or cultural, might be involved, > or > > > what actions if any they have implemented to address the situation. > > > > > > > > I think OpenOffice has had the opposite problem. We have a long > tradition > > of having quality non-coding contributors, especially in areas like > > translation, marketing, documentation, support, etc. But we had an > > over-reliance on corporate-sponsored engineers from a single company for > > coding. If I look at the project today, I see volunteers for non-coding > > items volunteering on the list on a near-daily basis. But not so often > for > > coding volunteers. > > Hi Rob, > > Yes, you and I it would seem concur on our observational assessment of > the current situation. > > > > > In any case, my point was not really about coders versus non-coders. > There > > is enough work to go around. My concern was more that we're not doing a > > great job at getting new contributors involved in the project. Look at > our > > committers list. We have nearly 100 now. How many of them are actually > > new, e.g., were not involved with the legacy OpenOffice.org project. > Sure, > > there are a few, but not many. > > > > Now look at the list archives for how many people of volunteered to help > > with the documentation, with the website, with UI, with testing, etc. > How > > many of them were able to break into actually contributing to the > project. > > Almost none of them, right? > > Yes, I'd agree. I also think it's fair to say, self forming volunteer > organizations fit the pattern in general - and therefore even more so > requires active attention always. > > > > > So the issue, as I see it, is not an issue with attracting volunteers. > It > > isan issue of helping the volunteers get started and helping them meet > > their goals in project participation. > > Sure, no argument here on any of that. I'd follow up from the first > paragraph, and add that IMO the new actors most needed right now are > those fitting the thin area - engineering. > > I think this means that; from those doing the engineering, particularly > those making decisions on the directions the code will be developed > going forward a need to be mindful to keep the required processes open > and transparent - pick your term here, and I hope all understand what I > mean here.. this is in no way an indictment but rather statemtnt of what > I see as a general principle > - so that those whom would be interested in such work will know it is > here. > > I think this is the first step in attracting engineering resources. > > From there then yes, the group needs to be proactive with organizing > hackfeasts, or activities of such like, the non-engineering contributors > can only at best help with this not drive it forward. > > Anyhow - A long, rambling response, befitting a late Friday night, and > all surrounded of course by IMO ;) > > //drew > > > > > > > > > > > -Rob > > > > > > > > > Anyhow, just thought I'd pass it along. BTW I watched this on a live > > > video stream but the panel discussion may be available in an on-line > > > archive, I don't know one way of the other. > > > > > > //drew > > > > > > <snip> > > > > > > > > >
