On Friday, March 01, 2013 13:54:41 Gina Likins wrote:
----- Original Message -----
> From: "Patrick W. Barnes" <patrick+fedora(a)patrickwbarnes.com>
> To: "For discussion about how and why to be a practitioner of the open source
way" <tosw(a)lists.fedorahosted.org>
> Sent: Friday, March 1, 2013 12:33:58 PM
> Subject: Re:
>
http://www.theopensourceway.org/book/The_Open_Source_Way-Introduction-Ess...
<snip>
> I believe the real answer is somewhere in between. The tool
> developers are not the only enablers. Those working on documentation
> and translation, infrastructure, etc. are also enablers. These
> people make up the contributor base that this TOSW book is focused
> on building. This definition does not encompass envangelists and
> others who spread and use the product but are not "enablers".
Interesting. I know the definition can't be overly wide in order to be effective,
and I definitely wouldn't include people who just download the product and use it, but
*I* would include people who are _evangelizing_ and bringing new people to the community.
They are (IMHO, of course) an important part of your marketing.
So, if I'm writing blog posts about the product and giving barcamp presentations on
it (or in other ways being an evangelist), I would like to think I'd be part of the
"Community."
Evangelists certainly are a part of the larger community, and I don't mean to imply
that their contributions aren't valuable, but the "community" referred to in
this statement:
"When we talk about community in the The Open Source Way, we
mean the
community of contributors who are enablers for all other communities.
The ones who, by getting things done, make it possible for many, many
more to get much, much more done."
...is the contributor community that builds the project and enables the larger community
to do what it does. The focus here is on building that contributor community, without
which there would be nothing to evangelize. Evangelists are an important part of an open
source ecosystem - an open source project without users (recruited by evangelists)
isn't likely to have much luck soliciting new contributors. However, evangelists are
not part of the contributor community that develops the tools, processes and resources
that the greater community needs.
--
Patrick W. Barnes
patrick(a)patrickwbarnes.com
http://patrickwbarnes.com/
LinkedIn:
http://linkedin.com/in/patrickwbarnes
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