Interesting question Nick! Well... first of all, I don't think an open source project is really started until it has some source code. So, whoever writes the first line of code I think would be deemed the person who "started" it. Of course, then there's the person with the initial vision, the person who leads the project in the beginning, the person who funds development of the project. These all could be the same person as is the case I think with most open source projects. On the other extreme, each of these roles could be fulfilled by multiple people.
I think the key thing you have to do to lead the initial development of an open source project is provide motivation. That's it. All you have to do to get a project started is to provide motivation. You have to influence others to write the code for you. The specific type of motivation could take many forms. You could get the person to believe that they are doing work for free for a worthy cause. You could get the person to believe this is a really good way to hone their skills. You could tell them that they will get exposure by doing this work. You could get them to believe that this is the most fun and exciting thing to do... that its not actually work, its entertainment. You could just outright pay them for their work which is how freelancing and contract jobs operate. You could offer them sexual favors. You could do a combination of these things. I would argue that some Six Hour Startup projects are started by people who don't write a line of code. A person has an idea, someone decides that's the idea everyone is going to work on for 6 hours. Preferably, as I've heard from Rob, and agree with, the person who has the idea should be the one who leads the group and communicates the vision to them. The motivation for doing Six Hour Startup might be different for different people. For me, its a way to meet new people, and hang out with cool people I already know. It's a way to learn new things. It's fun to get some piece of software working in a short period of time. Those are just some of my thoughts. I'm sure I could think of more if I gave it more time. But, now on to other people's thoughts! -- Kyle Mulka http://www.kylemulka.com http://www.scrapwalls.com On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 6:34 PM, Nick Molnar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I'm wondering if it is possible. > > I was going to ask this question to the group at SH, but couldn't make > it out. What would be the limitations? What role would one have to > play to meaningfully contribute in the early development phases? What > properties would the idea have to hold? > > I have some ideas on how it could work, and how it could fail, but I'd > love to hear from you guys. > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Website: http://saturdayhouse.org/ Post: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
