Chapter 3. The Lay of the Land
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is as much about community as it is about writing software. Consider the two words that make up the phrase open source: obviously, having source code is not a unique quality, since all software has source code, somewhere. The distinguishing feature of open source software is its openness, but being open is moot unless there is a community using the software. The more people using, collaborating, and contributing to the software, the greater the value of its openness.
Each FOSS project builds its own unique community with its own qualities. Some communities are small, others large; some are highly structured, some are much more casual; some readily welcome new contributors, others have high barriers to entry; and some communities are global, while others are very local. One of the first steps in getting involved with an open source community is to scout out the lay of the land and discover the characteristics of the community. To do so, you need to understand the qualities you're looking for, and you need to understand how to communicate with the community.
It's important -- and a little daunting -- to realize that the concept of open applies not only to the source code, but to all of the activity that takes place within a community. Engaging with an open source community means working in the open, succeeding in the open, and failing in the open.
At the end of this chapter, you should:
Understand the key qualities of a FOSS community;
Understand common FOSS communication tools;
Be able to determine the qualities of a specific FOSS community;
Start to engage with one or more FOSS communities using its communication tools and culture.
3.1. The Challenges of Global Community
Most FOSS projects are (or aspire to become) distributed, global communities. This introduces a number of challenges:
Language. Any global community will of necessity include participants with different native languages. Large projects usually evolve collaborative subgroups that work on documentation and
localization for specific languages, but contributors to code and
base documentation need a common language in which they can communicate. In many cases, the common language is English -- in part because it is one of the most widely spoken languages today. However, the fact that the reserved keywords and base documentation for many programming languages are in English may also be a critical factor. In Eric S. Raymond's
How to Become a Hacker, Linus Torvalds, the original creator of the Linux kernel, is quoted as saying that it never occurred to him to comment the Linux kernel code in any language other than English, despite the fact that English is his third language.
Time and distance. The fact that our globe spins introduces some interesting challenges: collaborators in India and the USA, for example, will never be able to collaborate in real time during normal business hours -- in fact, they'll hardly be able to collaborate during normal waking hours. Most communities meet face-to-face only once or twice a year, if at all, and the face-to-face meetings usually involve only a small subset of the whole community. These challenges have forced the development of really good asynchronous online communication tools. However, having people in different timezones also has some advantages, making it easier to staff IRCchannels, follow rapidly-developing security issues, and manage infrastructure24x7.
Ego. Standing out in an ocean of nicknames and e-mail addresses, trusting people you have never met, and accepting criticism from strangers is very difficult. Control freaks, glory-grabbers, bullies, and fearmongers exist in FOSS communities and are poisonous to community-building. Creating a fork of a software project is a significant undertaking that is not usually done except as a last resort, because it divides community attention and requires duplication of resources; however, the simple fact that a fork is possible and the community is essential often provides an effective check on runaway egos.
