Let me support Derek in this little conversation. Programmers identify with 'Dilbert' for a reason. They don't think and act like most other folks. Open source projects are not like other volunteer organizations.
I hear the words 'team building' and I have two reactions: (1) a grudging, rational admission that it is a good thing. (2) a subconscious, irrational gut-instinct pang that says 'run away', or 'your time is about to be wasted'. In most cases, (2) is the wiser response. Engineers are not baseball teams. That is not to say team-building doesn't occur. It happens through overt contributions of time and effort and pulling in the same direction in the long-haul, of slowly built respect for the other programmers who have actually done something, contributed to the project. I also know what programmers hate: anything that smacks of management or organization or control, especially by an outsider who is not a respected programmer. Programmers will take another programmer as a leader, but that is bassed on technical leadership, not managerial leadership. 'Herding engineers is like herding cats'. Programmers are prima-donnas. They are the most important and central people to a project. Without them, everything stops. Thier acomplishments are always heroic, and always took great amounts of effort, and were always inspired by genius. They work for the betterment of mankind. When you are a hero, there is pretty much nothing more annoying than having someone say to you that they are your leader, and that thier wisdom will guide your actions. GnuCash has many things that need doing. You are welcome to make a list of those things (and I can post it as a web page). Having a historian who can write up something along the lines of 'who wrote what code when, who gets credit, who accomplished what' is also a worthy taks. Emphasis on past tense. But the future tense: so-and-so will do this-and-such is a decree doomed to fail. If you do have such a future-tense list, and you have organizational skills, then keep the list private, and work you organizational magic to make it happen. Then a leader will emerge. --linas -- pub 1024D/01045933 2001-02-01 Linas Vepstas (Labas!) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> PGP Key fingerprint = 8305 2521 6000 0B5E 8984 3F54 64A9 9A82 0104 5933 _______________________________________________ gnucash-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.gnucash.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
