On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 06:36:42AM -0700, LucaDC wrote:
Bryce Harrington-3 wrote
Heh, I guess that's one way to interpret what I am trying to say, but really I should be more explicit:
If we have a mission here at Inkscape, it isn't to get everyone using our software. Nor is it really to stop people using Illustrator or anything negative about proprietary software; after all, we're actively supporting proprietary OS's and enabling people to remain on those systems with our Windows and Mac builds.
Rather, I think our mission is to _educate_ people about _making_ free software.
So, in our coffee analogy, what we should be doing is educating the people who come by about how we roast our beans, maybe tricks for getting different tastes out of them, and how to do all the various chores needed in operating a garage coffee shop. They may come by simply for the free coffee, but we want to see that working together to *make* the free coffee as part of a community is even more rewarding.
Good positive elaboration :) I second it, of course. Still, I dislike the word "educate" (I'm not a native English speaker, so maybe I'm wrong). What about: "Help people realize that contributing to free software is more rewarding than simply using it"?
Does educate have a bad connotation in your language? In the US 'reeducate' can give images of cult brainwashing and such, and 'indoctrinate' gives images of missionaries putting the fear of god into natives, but I don't know of common interpretations of plain old 'educate' that are quite so negative. Maybe teach or coach would be better.
In any case, it doesn't really matter what we call it, so long as we're good at doing it - helping new folks learn what makes free software so great, and showing the ropes of how to get involved. Make them feel comfortable making contributions, and give them tips to help improve their work techniques.
I also like the idea of organizing deliberate lessons on key topics, to help disseminate good know-how. We did a bit of this at the hackfest on several different topics (Architecture of Inkscape internals, State of imported libraries, Editing the Website, etc.), and I'd love to see us start doing that more broadly, perhaps through Hangouts or similar.
IMHO starting from the assumption that only contributors deserve attention, the final product is going to miss a big actor in the process, that is the mass of passive users from where new fresh and innovative contributors may come. A product which is not attractive for who is "outside" is going to slowly deflate or stall. This to say that people should be brought "inside" not by "teaching" (educating) them what they should do, but by showing them the advantages of being an active part of the game.
If you re-read my analogy above, I think you'll see we're in violent agreement. :-)
Bryce