[Sugar-devel] [IAEP] community influence on development

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 23:46, Bert Freudenberg<bert at freudenbergs.de> wrote:
>
> On 30.07.2009, at 22:23, Martin Dengler wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 04:17:56PM -0300, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
>>>
>>> On 28.07.2009, at 07:22, Martin Dengler wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 03:24:13PM +0545, Daniel Drake wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> However, I feel like it could be better if the community (who I
>>>>> might even stretch to call "customers") could have more influence.
>>>>> [...]  What are the options for the community having more of an
>>>>> influence here?
>>>>
>>>> Influence on whom?  Developers?  There are no SugarLabs employed
>>>> developers.
>>>
>>>
>>> But if we get feedback from the "front line", from teachers actually
>>> using our software in the field, the volunteer developers I know
>>> struggle to find a way to make it easier for them. Nothing beats
>>> direct contact with children of course, but even meeting teachers
>>> from
>>> the deployments and hearing first-hand accounts of the problems (and
>>> successes!) is rather motivating. Reading these reports on a mailing
>>> list is less emotionally moving but still a great hint at how to
>>> prioritize one's spare time.
>>
>> I don't disagree with anything you said, but I'm struggling to see how
>> it's relevant to the OP or my reply.  Perhaps by "the volunteer
>> developers I know struggle to find a way to make it easier for them"
>> you're implying that we need to make it easier for volunteer
>> developers to contribute?
>
> No, I meant the volunteer developers are motivated largely by feedback
> from users of their software. They then do all they can (sometimes
> even struggling) to help. At least that's what I see with the Etoys
> developers, which is similar to Sugar in that it's not a scratch-your-
> own-itch open-source project.

I think both etoys and sugar can be seen as scratch-your-own-itch
projects if we consider that people with their more basic needs
covered feel the need of self-realization through having a positive
impact in the lives of others.

Open source developers of today are normally very well paid and
well-considered in their environments, I think they have greater
chances to feel the need for something more transcendent than fixing
that annoying bug in their text editor of choice or writing their own
window manager.

So I agree that feedback from users will make more clear the impact
that their work has and could serve to attract more contributors if
well communicated.

Regards,

Tomeu

> - Bert -
>
>>> The problem is we get way too few feedback.
>>
>> Indeed.
>>
>>> - Bert -
>>
>> Martin
>
>
>
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