[IAEP] Funding - and governance

[Jim Gettys]

On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 11:53 +0200, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
> On 28.05.2008, at 10:42, Seth Woodworth wrote:
> 
> > I've been trying to wrap my brain around this idea for content-based
> > projects.  I've had a few people that I respect take the same stance
> > as Jim.  Mako wrote a pretty good article on the subject a few years
> > ago that I think has some bearing on the situation:
> >
> > http://mako.cc/writing/funding_volunteers/funding_volunteers.html
> 
> That article is spot-on. These paragraphs describe what many  
> volunteers feel with respect to OLPC - despite of many OLPC employees  
> at 1cc trying to be as open as possible, even using irc to chat if  
> they sit in the same room etc:

I think the reality of dealing with issues from getting machines into
production, dealing with G1G1 and country deployments have soaked most
of our time; the feelings are correct, even if I believe the cause is
somewhat different than described in this particular case; even half of
the OLPC people don't work in Cambridge.  But long term, it is an
accurate description of the result which I would expect (and have
observed).  We often use IRC even if most of us are in the same room
(e.g. the weekly software meeting), for exactly that reason.

This is (part of why) Sugar having a life of its own is "good", if done
in the right way.  (Re)establishing trust and a regular release cycle is
essential.  So if we have to focus (as we have) on making the first
deployments succeed, development can continue rather than everyone
getting frustrated.  The devil is in the details: how to set priorities,
settle disputes, and make transparent decisions as a community. And we
have the additional challenge of building a larger/different community
than simply people out to fix their personal (or corporate) itch;
educators and people out to fix things for their own and other's
children must be fully integrated in some fashion.

When a project is going well, almost any governance works; when it
doesn't, the governance matters deeply.

All this is also why F2F meetings serve such an essential role in free
software projects; the lubrication of "beer" (of what ever form) in a
social setting greatly aids the on-line interactions the rest of the
time.  I'd like to see a meeting specifically for Sugar organized in the
not-too-distant future.
                                      - Jim

-- 
Jim Gettys <jg at laptop.org>
One Laptop Per Child