Open-Source Eco-Systems

Facilitated by Dave Greenberg, CiviCRM Product Manager

Dave will facilitate an interactive discussion engaging and activating users and developers to help with support, QA, documentation, code contributions, feedback on features, etc. Participants will be invited to discuss their experiences, what's worked, what has not worked and hear the same from other projects.

Notes:

Open source Ecosystems

• Does it work
• Collaboration
• Where we're at
• What works/Doesn't work
  • Institutional
  • Infrastructure
• User Interface design
• Create Community
• Organizing participation
• Aggregating Across Ecosystems
• Starting out
• Expectation management
• Education
• Best Practice

Divided into two groups - first group dealing with creating open source communities Second group - bigger picture -

Tiddlywiki - javascript based wiki that can save stuff locally. Hard to know how big it is - hard to track it. Very lose community. Small companies that need support around specific things (like copier/scanner, etc.) No one is managing it from the user perspective. No one is planning it - a crisis situation when things are broken (because they weren't planned in the first place.) Neither is meeting the needs of users. Building internal capacity - not outsourcing - transform the way people think about technology - not short term or intermediate, how do you make a long term thinking? Getting linux at schools - might change the adoption rate in businesses - people begin to get more comfortable. Another thing to consider - why do people develop open source - why do the best coders in the world develop software that they give away. Only two reasons that code gets generated - ego & money. Hopefully the ego is fueled by social good. Tipping point of successful ecology is broader adoption. Nonprofits asking for software that can help their business process. Difficult to find the right tool. How can it deliver this. Knowledge management and documentation. In software projects, and in organizations - how does the knowledge management - can it be merged? Does this provide fertile ground for the community to grow. Customer service etc. don't really connect with open source? There has to be a money flow into the ecosystem in order for it to survive. Money is involved in open source projects.

All open source projects have a flow of money in it - necessary but not sufficent, and money has derailed some projects. Gap in the value chain - connects end user needs to open source community -key thing that needs to be solved. Nonprofits in general are terrible planners - no motivation for planning. External forces that impact the use of technolog ywithin organizations. Plan for everything except technology.