Let me jump in on this one...
Every OS community is basically driven by two forces :
- The pull : contributors and users express needs, request new features, suggest alternate ways and contribute in many ways to shape the application. I would dub this "positive pull". The other side of the coin which I would dub "negative pull" is when users who don’t contribute much ask for more or try to have the tool fit what they need rather than check if the tool fits their need
Or else they make valid request but without any reality check (again, paraphrasing Jason) as to what kind of resources are needed to achieve it.
- The push : developpers and core contributors go about making their vision a reality, and the vision is often born out of a need for the tool they built, or the frustration of a tool which didn’t fit their needs. Of course the whole purpose of having a community is encouraging suggestion, sharing ideas, and such. I would call this "positive push". On the other hand, sometimes dev teams are geared toward keeping control of things, it’s "their" baby and no-one has to tell them how to raise it. Everyone has heard of the benevolent tyrant OS community syndrome. I have seen it happen... it’s bad. I’ll call this "negative push".
More often than not, what ends up happening is users get frustrated because they feel they are not heard and developpers get frustrated because the users don’t grasp what kind of work load development is or the underlying logic of an OS community which is share knowledge, time and passion to build a better tool than you’d have built on your own (Share means two ways
)
I really do think here @MODx we have the chance of having a very open team :
1) Open to new ideas and suggestion : how many bits of MODx code have been asked for or suggested by users ? Check bug reports and feature request and do the math : Lots ! I am always amazed at the community dynamics here : be it core team members or key contributors, there is always someone to pick up a good idea or suggestion and saying : let’s try it ! and more often than not, you get new code to solve your problem
It’s really amazing.
2) Open to new contributors : As I said earlier, I have been part of many communities and a few of them are as open as the MODx team. You have ideas, you are motivated, you have some time to dedicate and you want to make things happen ? There is more chance than not that eventually you’ll get a chance to be part of things. I sure can testify to it. But many others can say the same ! We have a pretty extended team, compared to similar young communities. The spirit is really good, people are passionate and talented there, really exciting to work in the MODx team.
I also happen to think we have positive push from the team and overall positive pull from the community. Of course you might say, the marketing guy jumps in and says it’s all rosy and nice and the team is really great. But I mean, I don’t have to do a lot of effort here, because it’s true ! I think we really do respect people’s view, even when they’re different and that’s a change if you browse some forums
Now, about funding dev : as Jason said, you don’t need to go commercial to fund your project, there are indeed plenty of ways to fund your project intelligently, without compromising in any way the OS community and spirit. I don’t think going commercial would make things going faster and better (have a look at commercial solutions...rarely groundbreaking). What I do think is that providing resources to speed up and improve the development process while respecting the ecosystem as Jason puts it is the way to go.
You need to get organized to achieve a goal, and that means setting up the infrastructure, as Jason puts it. The key factor that makes it different from a commercial project is the goal which is not profit itself as an end but as a mean to a higher end (so to speak).
The decisive advantage of open source communities over commercial development is precisely :
- the openness : open systems are more efficient than closed ones, fresh views and thus innovation is more likely to happen, which is not true of "closed" / "boundary-ful" organizations.
- the motivation : commercial organization and their employees are motivated by money. OS communities’ contributors are motivated by passion. Is there any doubt passion brings a lot more to creativity than money ? For me : none.
Now this doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t make money. It just means this should never be first and foremost about making money... otherwise, you loose contributors, you loose the community’s feedback and the contributors’ dedication. Don’t worry, we are much aware of this, and too passionate about what we do to fall into this pit...
MODX Staff
MODX Staff
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yea yea...
