[IAEP] Do nice guys finish first?

[Sean DALY]

David, I'm not sure what you mean. Do you feel some contributors
aren't working together?

Having expectations about what others will do can be considered an
implicit transaction too. Long ago an advice columnist I liked for her
common sense responded to a questioner upset when she discovered an
expensive gift had been given away to someone else by the recipient.
The columnist wrote: "A present is something you give away with no
expectations about how it will be used. With strings attached, it's
not a present, it's something else."

Growth can be painful and risky for any organization. Possibly the
greatest challenge Sugar Labs will face will be our feelings when
funding arrives. Will funding use be fair? Will some feel they are
contributing for free while others benefit?

We addressed some of these questions at SugarCamp Paris last May,
citing Executive Director compensation, travelling and lodging
expenses for SugarCamp meetings, and marketing expenses to spread the
word. But other uses are certainly candidates for discussion, for
example: infrastructure costs, with or without paid admin; a
frontoffice staff person doing unfun paperwork; or short-term
contracts important to SL which could support core developers.

We have to be lucid about how other organizations - FLOSS projects and
for-profits such as OEMs alike - will wish to benefit from the success
we may have. But, that doesn't preclude partnerships which can advance
our education mission. At Bolzano's SFScon I liked Simon Phipps' slide
with a crocodile. To paraphrase, he said: "Corporations aren't nice,
or have feelings, or remember much of anything. They're just reptiles.
It's fine to deal with them, but just don't forget they are reptiles."
(http://www.webmink.net/2009/10/reptiles.htm) So we are forewarned.

Many NGOs face internal resource allocation struggles, which can be
demoralizing for underpaid staff or unpaid volunteers. Credit can be a
means of encouragement for some, but can also demoralize the quiet
contributor working hard. That said, there is a solution: enlarging
the resources. There is room for many more contributors at SL and I
and others are wrestling with the problem of where to find and recruit
them.

A key concept I think is "non-negotiables" - ideas we share and which
shouldn't be compromised. Of course, enumerating and agreeing on these
may well be difficult. But such principles may be helpful to avoid
losing our way, dealing with corporations, recruiting talented
contributors, or facing a crisis when funding arrives.

Sean



On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 8:41 PM,  <dfarning at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
> Over the last couple of months I have been struggling with some of the
> shifts in Sugar Labs.  My greatest concern has been the increasing emphasis
> on transactions over reciprocity.
>
> Transactions represent the notion that individuals take action with the
> expectation that they will be rewarded for their action.  Reciprocity is the
> idea that if one gives freely, other will be inclined to do likewise.  Both
> involve acting in one own self interest.
>
> The problem with transactions is that they tend to cause competition.  In
> Sugar Labs that competition is for credit, attention and resources.
>  Transactions involve bookkeeping -- either implicitly or explicitly.
>  Transactions crowd out reciprocity.
>
> Reciprocity involves working on the Sugar Labs mission and giving that work
> freely to Sugar Labs with the expectation that other will build on your work
> to further the mission.
>
> Maybe it is a growth phase.  1 year ago Sugar Labs had little worth
> competing for. 1 year ago participants remembered the fresh wounds of the
> OLPC spinoff.  1 year ago conversations were about how can we work together
> to make Sugar awesome.
>
> I hope that Sugar Labs can get back to working together to make Sugar
> awesome.
>
> david
>
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