New Document: "How to Start Contributing to or Using Open Source Software"

[Shlomi Fish]

On Tuesday 28 Dec 2010 16:36:48 Gabor Szabo wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 8:37 PM, Shlomi Fish <shlomif at iglu.org.il> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > I recently finished working on a new document titled "How to Start
> > Contributing to or Using Open Source Software" intended to get more
> > people involved in the world of free and open source software (FOSS).
> > You can find it here:
> > 
> > http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/How_to_start_contributing_to_or_u
> > sing_Open_Source_Software
> > 
> > Short link: http://bit.ly/gkeXn5
> > 
> > Any comments, corrections or suggestions would be welcome.
> 
> Nice.
> 
> I just wanted to embark on another mission to get more people to contribute
> to open source in general and Perl is specific. I think you article might
> help in that though after I reached the <<Some Mental Preparation >> part
> I am a bit worried.
> 
> See my comments:
> 
> 
> In the <<What is "shrinkwrap" software?>> section it sounds as
> if "open source software" was not "commercial".
> IMHO there is an overlap and between the two.
> 

Hmmm... I tried to make the distinction clear, but may have missed stating it 
exactly. I'll work on correcting it.

> 
> The in <<What is open source software? >> you are saying that
> "open source does not stand against commercialism" which is of course
> right but now sounds a bit contradicting the previous section.

OK, I'll correct that too.

> 
> 
> <<Why open source software?>> Starts by the "free beer" approach.
> I am not sure it is good to put that as the first item and thereby
> emphasize it but if you do it you might want to add something like
> "legally" to make that part clear.

Sure. The reason I put the "free beer" aspect first is because that is what I 
believe most people will care about at first ("great, free stuff that I can 
use."), so it's still the primary advantage. 

> 
> 
> 
> <<Some Mental Preparation >>
> Wow, you start by turning people off? I understand you want to be as honest
> as possible but you just lost everyone at that point. Everyone except the
> fighters maybe.
> Is the situation really that bad? I don't think so.
> 

I don't know how bad it is, but I've heard many stories. Someone told me the 
people on all the IRC channels of distributions he tried were rude to him 
except for those in the NetBSD channel, which he ended up using due to that. 
I've been kicked, banned and at one time even K-lined from various channels on 
irc.perl.org. There are also these:

* http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO/

* http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment_policy

I've witnessed some rudeness on various online forums that I frequent 
including mailing lists and IRC channels.

So I am being honest, and one of the reasons I started writing the document 
was that I felt that "How to become a hacker" did not give enough mental 
preparation for the easily offended people.

But I'll take your comments into consideration.

> I'd write the opposite way, something like this:
> 
> "While most open source projects are very welcoming to the newcomers
> there too might
> be bad apples who might sound offending. In most of the cases this is
> just due to lack
> of communication. So if you ever feel offended, either talk
> (privately!) to the project leader
> or look for another project."
> 
> And even this might be a bit too much on the negative side.
> 

Hmmmm....

> OTOH the Lessing quote was very good and moving.
> 

Nice. :-).

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

> 
> regards
>    Gabor
>    http://szabgab.com/

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Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
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