On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:02:56 -0600, Charles Oliver Nutter
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I disagree, and you need look no further than this mailing list to see
the truth. Of the perhaps 40 threads I see started since Apr 3, I see
only 8 that were started by folks from Microsoft...all John Lam...two of
those SVN update emails. So perhaps 6 substantive threads where the
initiator is someone from the IronRuby team.
Oh, I don't disagree with this, just that I don't see any physical
obstacles keeping the community from becoming more involved. Mental
obstacles, for sure... And maybe that's really where the focus needs to
be: Finding ways to remove the mental obstacles that keep people from
contributing more aggressively.
I know how you guys have done it and are continuing to do it. But putting
yourself in IronRuby's Red Slippers for a moment, how would you do it if
you were starting from scratch (or as close to scratch as you can get w/o
literally starting from scratch) and had to find ways to first, sell the
overall idea to the community to then get that same community to actively
participate in the process while at the same time making attempt to
convince that the once proprietary-only giant really is committed to
building OSS into their overall software ecosystem?
In order for an OSS project to work, any core team needs to be having
conversations in the open. Since this is clearly not happening, it would
be the first thing to change. I don't know if it's Microsoft policy or
just an oversight by the IronRuby team.
I can't say I really know the answer, but I do agree with your point.
From my own perspective I would suggest it's a combination of the internal
culture at MSFT attempting to change how they go about the business of
courting the developer coupled with the size of the internal IronRuby team
that still have to meet deadlines and expectations that are unrelated to
IronRuby (e.g. integration with the DLR team, MIX and other high profile
events, typical corporate culture stuff such as performance reviews,
etc.) That's not an attempt to provide an excuse as to why they can't be
more open. Just an attempt at understanding there are more forces
involved than are immediately obvious from the outside looking in.
And obviously not tossing SVN bundles over the wall would help foster a
bit more dynamic community.
Absolutely 100% agree. One of things I was curious to see when John first
announced that IronRuby would be hosted on RubyForge was whether or not he
could actually pull it off. From what I assume is both of our
perspectives, thus far it hasn't worked out as well as it both could and
should have.
It's far more difficult (maybe impossible) to run an OSS project well if
the community members can't update their working copies to exactly what
the core team sees day-to-day. This one is most likely an MS issue.
It's absolutely 100% an internal MSFT issue. Can it be fixed?
--
/M:D
M. David Peterson
Co-Founder & Chief Architect, 3rd&Urban, LLC
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mobile: (206) 999-0588
http://3rdandUrban.com | http://amp.fm |
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2354
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