Thank you for your comments Christopher. I may just try my mailing list invitation, and will let you guys know how it works out.
If there are other ideas on outreach of this type, I would like to hear it. I think the ultimate success of my favorite little GIS program may depend on the results of this outreach. Landon Office Phone Number: (209) 946-0268 Cell Phone Number: (209) 992-0658 -----Original Message----- From: discuss-boun...@lists.osgeo.org [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Christopher Schmidt Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 12:16 PM To: OSGeo Discussions Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Open Source Lurkers On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 11:55:30AM -0700, Landon Blake wrote: > Is OpenJUMP the only community with these open source lurkers? No. > How many of these companies do you think there are? (I'm not talking about > one guy who downloads an open source app and uses it. I'm talking about > actual companies with more than one employee.) The majority. I figure it's approximately equal to the iceberg effect: Unless you are a consultant advertising your services far and wide, my guess is that for every one company you see participating openly in an Open Source project, there are probably about 9 that are using the software without you having any clue. > Why don't they get more involved? * No need: When Open Source solves the problem, you don't need to get involved. * No time: We'd love to participate more, but we've got our own problems to solve -- and they don't match those of the community. * No understanding: We download this software just like all of our other software. What's a mailing list? * Not enough encouragement. Gtting started in an open source project can be a daunting task even for the well-educated in the open source world; for those who aren't, it's an order of magnitude more difficult > Are they embarrassed? Do they not want > their competition to find out about the open source program they are > benefiting from? Are they violating the terms of the license and don't > want to get busted? I think these are generally unlikely. > Do they not understand that their involvement is a > key part of the program's survival? It is likely they do not, in my opinoin; and in this, they may well be right. The software existed before they started using it; it is likely it will exist in some form afterwards as well. > This has become an important question for me recently as the active > development of OpenJUMP has slowed. We don't have any organizations > actively participating in development. (Well, maybe one or two, but they > have been quiet lately.) I'm the only one working on serious > improvements or changes, and not just bug fixes. I would really like to > reach out to these lurkers to get them more involved. Ultimately, the > survival of the project may depend on it. See also: OpenLayers. Regards, -- Christopher Schmidt Web Developer _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss Warning: Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss