[Peers] what's in it for you?

[Asheesh Laroia]

Excerpts from Kevin Turner's message of Fri Mar 12 22:40:33 +0000 2010:
> Not too long ago, I was reading questions on StackOverflow, the sort
> of questions openhatch is built to answer ("What project should I
> contribute to?"), although I didn't know about openhatch at the time.
> And I thought of another angle that might help.
> 
> There are certain filters we apply readily enough.  Application domain
> (Games?  Multimedia production?  Hyperdistributed cloud
> superintelligence?), skill set (Code monkey?  Human-computer
> interaction?  Technical writer?), technology choice (Haskell?
> Android?  Anything But PHP?).  And all the information necessary to
> figure that out is pretty readily available on project pages or by
> Trove classification.
> 
> But something that's missing from all that is being able to identify
> what contributors get out of it.  What is it about working on that
> project that appeals to them?
> 
> Here are some examples I might give:
> 
> * One thing about the GIMP is that it lets people be creative.  And
>   maybe, through one of these crazy filters, people are able to
>   express something they couldn't have otherwise.  Or restore a photo
>   that might have been lost.  And there's joy in that too, in seeing
>   an image take shape.
>   [creativity self-expression joy]
> 
> * This testing tool is about giving developers feedback, about helping
>   them be confident in their work.  And about taking some of the
>   hassle out of the testing process, having it just happen and be easy
>   to do.
>   [confidence ease]
> 
> * The thing I like about working with the Twisted team is their
>   committment to producing really top-notch work.  When a patch makes
>   it through the review process there, I know it's a piece of code I
>   can count on.  And I know my skills as a programmer have grown a lot
>   in working with them.
>   [teamwork count-on-ability(dependability) growth]
> 
> * I think the work we did at OpenID Enabled was about making something
>   happen that wouldn't have happened without us.  Giving webmasters a
>   way to seperate "authenticate this user" from the details of *how*
>   they do that with a particular type of credentials lets us explore
>   so many options beyond repeatable passwords.  And I think that,
>   ultimately, that's going to provide people with more security.  Both
>   end-users, in having an authentication provider that meets their
>   needs, and application developers, when they don't have to worry
>   about not offering the right credential management system.
>   [innovation security]
> 
> 
> Does that make sense?  Does it seem valuable to talk about how people
> relate to projects in that way?
> 
> I was also thinking, that since this is about building community and
> perhaps about putting a human face on the people involved, it might
> help people connect if these sorts of testimonials were shared in
> video form, youtube-style.  I think you'd want to keep them *real*
> short, because you want people to be able to browse these pretty
> quickly.

Wow!

The video idea would be really interesting...

Others have suggested we add another question to our project pages:
What would a new contributor get out of choosing *this* project?
What would you think about us adding a question for maintainers along
those lines?

The video takes this a step up, but it's a step up in work that I personally
have difficulty imagining myself doing. But maybe it'd be really cool --
can you think of how it would integrate with the OpenHatch site? Or would it
instead be a different "open source feel good" site whose purpose was simply
to promote those videos?

Will (Kahn-Greene, who is on this list) -- I wonder what you think.

> (...hmm.  I think that the above examples ended up being in
> chronological order for me, and they seems to get more buzzwordy as time
> goes on.  Huh.)

It's okay -- your life itself is getting more buzzwordy as life goes on. (-;

-- Asheesh.

-- 
Try to value useful qualities in one who loves you.