On 18/07/2008, at 11:08 AM, John Sonnenschein wrote: >> A Contributor is *everyone* in the context of opensolaris.org. No one >> would be involved or reading lists if they weren't interested, and >> contributing to the success of the community. > > I somewhat take issue with this, in as far as a casual browser may > simply be interested in what all this "opensolaris" hype is all > about, completely apathetic as to the success or failure of the > project. ( They may also be antagonistic, but let's leave the trolls > aside ). > > I'm not sure 'contributor' is something that we might be able to pin > down with mathematical precision considering we seem to be moving > towards wanting to grant the status to non-code contributions ( the > practicality and cognitive framework leading to that decision being > taken as axiomatic ... ). Is someone asking "my network doesn't > work. why?" contributing to the success of the community? maybe > maybe not. What about the guy that answers that question? The > difference between the two may simply be the next similar email that > comes out ( guy asking becomes guy answering)
Yes, but they have zero attributes at that stage. They can't expect to decide the direction of a project, they can't commit code, they can't X, Y or Z - until they gain the necessary peer recognition. >> Leader are those people with a stronger position in the community. >> Leaders in the project sense may be ones making decisions and >> deciding >> the direction of a project. They have respect from their peers that >> has elevated them into a position of responsibility. Only leaders can >> elevate other people to that position, to share in the >> responsibilities. > > What of communities / projects / groups with a vacuum of leadership? > Who elevates leader #0 ? Good question - they're essentially orphaned. If an individual shows continued commitment to do something useful, then I expect existing Members to want to help support that commitment. Next question is what happens in the case of new projects/communities... >> Perhaps to reflect this, another supergroup, something like >> "summit" , designed such that leaders of other, diverse groups come >> together to accomplish a specific goal ( like fitting all that >> stuff on a CD, or evaluating architectural impact ) ? Or Release Team? Glynn
