Being open

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How open is your project? It’s a question that should be asked of any open source software development project. It goes without saying that the software being distributed in such a project has an open source licence. That ensures that the software itself is open. What about the project? What about the way the code gets developed?

Sometimes I tell people that the licence is the thing. Without an open source licence, it’s just not open source software. And that’s true. But it’s not enough.

Pia Waugh made just this point to me when I met up with her last week. Amongst a million other things she does, Pia also works for ASK-OSS, the Australian equivalent of OSS Watch. She argues that without open communities, open content, and open standards, open source software is stunted. More and more I begin to see her point.

Yet being open is hard sometimes.

It takes practice. Moreover it admits of degrees and may need to be approached one step at a time. A good start is to set up an open development discussion list. But if you do, treat it with respect. Once you’ve got such a list, then all development communication needs to take place on it.

Either the project is open and this open development discussion list reflects that, or its openness is a sham.

Try it on for size

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These days almost any webhosting company that offers a GNU/Linux package also offers a plethora of one-click installs of free and open source content management systems, database servers, blogging software, wikis, control versioning systems (cvs), and more. With so much choice, you will want to try it all. And you should. It’s fun, and you will learn a great deal.

There is probably some marketing term for a product that promotes itself by letting potential customers use it. In the case of open source software, that trial use merges seamlessly with actual use, with no discernible transition or acquisition cost.

So, I come, I try out some software, I like it so much that…I just keep using it.

The opportunity to try something that isn’t a cut-down version, or a lost leader for a “pro” version, is one of the great strengths of free and open source software.

Recently I have been learning how to administer Mailman. Just another one-click install option from the webhoster for a project site I am helping with. I already know it does the job I need it to do. I need to set up a development discussion list and an announcement list. I know this because I’ve engaged with Mailman interfaces as a list subscriber on countless open source project sites. Now I’m discovering that administering lists is reasonably straightforward as well. What should I do now?

Just keep using it!

In the news

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It’s always a little embarrassing when you find yourself in the news, Public sector catches wikimania. I was interviewed back in December about OSS Watch’s Wiki. Freelance writer for The Guardian Steve Mathieson was interested in why we had gone down this route and how we were planning to avoid some of the problems Wikipedia was experiencing on trust issues.

To be honest, the interview took place on the day before we left for Canada for Christmas, so I’d largely forgotten about it when I was contacted by the photo desk at The Guardian in January and asked to make myself available for a photo shoot. Get real! But then the article failed to appear in January. So I forgot about it again.

Then yesterday, after a long but enjoyable advisory committee meeting, I found an email in my inbox from Steve letting me know that the article had come out. No photo of me (thank heavens!) but a really nice piece. Good for OSS Watch, good for JISC (our funders), good for Oxford University (I think).

Still, a little embarrassing though 🙂

ReportTool – setting up a project site

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I am assisting my friend, Steve Butterfill, in setting up a project site for a software application he wrote called ReportTool. Steve’s plan is to eventually release ReportTool under an open source licence. My job is to help him think through the process involved, as well as pitching in to help on practical things like writing web pages and participating on mailing lists and such.

Heavens, there is such a lot to do. Even for the smallest of projects. First impressions, of course, are important. So we want to get as much right before the site is announced to its potential user/developer community.

A million and one things to do

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Sometime it feels like I’ve got a million and one things to do. So much in fact that I can’t face doing any of it. It feels like that right now.

The only solution I’ve found effective is to narrow down to one manageable item on the list and tackle that one, ignoring everything else. Get that one item done no matter what.

This has two benefits. First, I at least get one thing done – so one less item on the list. Second, I persuade myself that I don’t need to throw up my hands; I can do everything, I just need to do it one thing at a time.

Today: prep for OSS Watch’s advisory committee meeting.

Let tomorrow take care of itself.