On Saturday 22 Aug 2009 1:40:10 am Thyagarajan தியாகராஜன் wrote: > >>team players are very useful in getting coffee and bajjis - they are > > otherwise > > ilugc events like the FOSSE '06, SFD '06 , i enjoyed with the team as a > good team player when it mattered the most for physical contribution. I am > one for getting tea and coffee's for my team.
one must understand the fundamental nature of LUGs in particular and the open source world in general. The concepts 'team' and 'democracy' are totally different here. What makes Chennai LUG so successful is that we have many people with well defined egos who do not fear to take initiative. They dive into projects without looking back to see if the 'team' is following them. If a call comes, they answer. They ask for help and volunteers, but do not start whining and abandon the project if there is no help or volunteers. Open source projects are the same - thousands contribute to the linux kernel, but one man decides. If Linus does not sign off on a commit - it does not appear in the kernel. Anyone can express an opinion, but those who contribute more are more likely to be heard. The concept of a team with each member having a defined role is unknown to FOSS. When someone joins a software project no one tells him what to do or on what area he should work. He picks something and does it - if others like it, it is accepted. In industry, each person is allotted an area of work and tasks to do - and if he does it whether he likes it or not - he is a team player. Secondly people are supposed to stick to the area they are allotted and not do work allotted to others. Everyone is supposed to specialise. No all rounders permitted, or tolerated. If you are made to do testing - do testing, no programming allowed. If the code fails a test, you do not repair the code - you report the failure to the concerned authority and he gets it repaired. And if you do that without grumbling, then you get a tick mark as a team player. And if you are ordered to get coffee and bajjis - you do it if it is in your allotted area of responsibility - but in a LUG meet no one will dream of ordering anyone to get coffee and bajjis. Someone will go and get them, often without asking anyone what they want. I have seen LUGs controlled by one or two people with over blown egos with a bunch of followers with no ego at all. Result is that everything depends on getting permission from these one or two people. Net result is that the LUG does not do much. People get frustrated and leave or split. I have even seen one of these people making a junior member carry his laptop for him! That junior is a real team player. As for democracy - one man one vote - it is unknown in this domain. A is a LUG member. He gives thoughtful advice on the mailing list, he gives excellent well documented talks in meets and has conducted many many LDDs and training sessions. B is a new member who is famous for selling his address book to social networking sites and spamming the LUG with invitations. His other contributions are minimal. No one will suggest that both of them have only one vote each. A should have at least 10 votes and B should not be allowed to vote at all. to summarise - no democracy, no team players - a bunch of strong willed egoists scratching their itches. -- regards kg http://lawgon.livejournal.com _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, email [email protected] with "unsubscribe <password> <address>" in the subject or body of the message. http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
