Hi there,
I, like Sal, come to this group with a slightly different perspective.
Though I use open source software daily, my interest comes from my work with
an alternative art space in central Illinois who takes the name of the
movement as its own. OPENSOURCE Art ( http://opensource.boxwith.com ) is
interested in providing a space for work within our community of limited
resources. Similar to the open source software movement, we created a
platform on which to build. Our structure is minimal and attempts to remain
horizontal, as each member has an equal vote and participate as much or as
little as they wish in programming. We are still internally fraught with
questions of leadership, worrying that we are not remaining democratic when
a few members take on more responsibility and are thus more influential.
Here is our mission
statement.<http://opensource.boxwith.com/archives/000085.html>
Felix Stalder's essay embodied for me many of the questions I still have
about my participation in open source projects (be they OS software or OS
culture) regarding accessibility, democracy, and participation. He points
to the mythology of open source as being accessible to a broad group and
being democratic in its organization, while also questioning how
participation in open source culture is impeded upon by the structuring of
expertise.
I am much looking forward to this discussion!
best,
Katie
On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 8:32 AM, Janet Hawtin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 8:44 PM, dominic smith
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > I do have a question for members of this discussion on this matter of
> > contributing to software development. Do you feel that successful
> > collaboration on an open project is as simple as members contributing
> useful
> > code to a project or are there other factors such as friendships and
> > geographical location that have an impact?
>
> Each project has a community
> The communities vary.
> Some are international
> Some are regional or have strong participation from specific language
> groups.
> I think there is a factor where the kind of new contacts that the group
> makes
> has an impact on the culture of the communities.
> ie if a lot of new people say I wish this application was more like n
> windows application
> this has a shaping factor on dialogue. If it is an application where
> people are coming to it without muscle memory from a competing product
> the first conversations can be easier.
>
--
Katie Hargrave
http://www.katiehargrave.us
OPENSOURCE Art
http://opensource.boxwith.com
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