On 10-09-04 1:35 , Joshua L. Blocher wrote:
My Basic issue with the division into User and Developer is that it is a false dichotomy. In community we try not to seperate the two though it can be hard. We have contributors these can be anyone. From the guy who creates simple stuff with inkscape to the profession artists, they contribute the validity of inkscape as viable and useable design/drawing program. Documentors and coders obviously improve inkscape. We also have a very low barrier to gain access to the bazaar repo. We mentor lots of new contributors.
I think seperating User and Developer on the website will stifle the way our community continues to work. A site design with the idea that if you are here you are a contributor or everyone is a contributor might be of more value.
Joshua L. Blocher
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Hi, A dichotomy would be devastating, surely, I agree with you completely! Personally, I think that Inkscape has an admirable community. I feel it is such a refreshment when I come to the Inkscape page and all the nighlies are there, built and ready! A true 'bazaar' in Raymond's sense of the word.
I tried to emphasize that user/dev areas are not meant to separate in any case. But, to optimize the display of the information based *on the roles* we take as visitors. I am not a native speaker, so I tend to make my texts very messy, sorry about that! :)...
In the real life, we take a lot of roles. For example one person could be, a father, an Inkscape developer, a son, a friend, a trumpet player, a bicyclist, etc... Someone can be all that, but it would be very inconvenient if that person had to ride a bicycle while playing the trumpet and at the same time trying to develop Inkscape with the family around. In life, we always somehow manage to balance and smooth our roles. And yes, even combine them sometimes! But, mostly we benefit from 'role playing' i.e. taking separate roles at separate times, even when those roles change really, really fast.
This is the analogy for the optimization I would like to see. Definitely not the borders and barriers and confines. But instead of 'all-the-content-all-of-the-time' approach, perhaps it would be better something like 'all you need for the development, and then some' and 'all you need for the art, and then some', with only a click to completely shift from one 'optimized environment' to the other. Certainly, data and information are not confined to separate 'boxes' or separations. They can be accessed from many points, using links, making it appear that they 'belong' to many pages. And I think that is a good thing. So, maybe I can ask you to imagine two examples where you have exactly the same content, but you arrange it so that in one example you pick the content to emphasize one quality of the content, and in the other example you arrange it so that it emphasizes some other quality. You will have the same building blocks in both examples, but the way you arrange those blocks to communicate the desired quality is question of optimization. Or, maybe better said 'information design'.
I believe it would be beneficial to the community by showing more depth to the Inkscape project, from two distinct and easily graspable standpoints. I believe it would allow both aspects to shine clearly. I am sorry if I sounded like the devs and artists would be in separate confines. To me, that would be horrible beyond any comprehension. We are all devs and artists, like you said, (although I am a complete ignoramus when it comes to the dev magic!), but I think you would agree that we are not both full at the same time. So, I suggested to have an information structure that can fully support our art side and our dev side.
This suggestion was based on the observations of the emergence of networked societies. As complex as they might seem, they appear as phase spaces to me. They always have certain attractors and deflectors and a fine graduation in between. (sorry for this physics/maths oversimplification :)... Dev Area and User Area are attractors within the same phase space, The 'playground' is everything in between, and that's where all the dynamics happen.
The examples of successful implementation of this principle would be: -Mozilla foundation sites -Blender website -Wordpress website ...
I excuse myself to any maths and psychology experts for oversimplifications. ;)
Alex.