Software Developers European Meeting Archives

Hello! I am at the FOSDEM’13″>FOSDEM, the Free and Open source Software Developers’ European Meeting, in Brussels. The flight here last night from Berlin was delayed, so I missed the pre-party. Instead I bumped into Frank Karlitschek of ownCloud and his buddies. This immediately sparked a discussion about company-community relations over a pint and something to nibble on. After an interesting excursion into the city of Brussels this morning (we trusted the navigation system and ended up at the wrong university campus in the first trial), I finally made it to the venue. In the following, find some notes from presentations I attended.

Messaging for Free Software Groups and Projects

Deborah Nicholson presented on messaging for Free Software communities, a topic that commonly gives contributors that shivering feeling down the spine that they should do something about it, and then procrastinate about it. Her suggestions are simple and easy to implement: Tell a positive story about your project. The audience pointed to Thumper’s rule: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.” My children probably heard it a thousand times by now, but it never grows old. Teach people how to help themselves. Use neutral examples and by that, avoid stereotypes (like presumptions about income levels or technical inclinations of certain groups). Be welcoming and approachable. Welcome all contributors, not just coders, and regularly thank them for their work. Be approachable to users and contributors – when at a conference, do not hide behind your laptop (maybe do not even bring one). Have two people at your booth, showing that the project is fun to work on. Consider standing in front of the booth to remove the barrier of the conference table.

Deb explained how people respond more to the “Why” of a project than the “What”. The choice of programming language or database system may not be as interesting for them up front than the problem that the project will help them to solve. Following her simple guidelines to FLOSS projects attracts contributors and users. They are a good thing to keep in mind.

(to be continued)