[OSGeo-Discuss] Open Source Lurkers

Mon Aug 31 14:44:31 PDT 2009

Hi,
In India, OpenJUMP has a very good following on windows, as it is much simpler than some costly commercial flavors of GIS. They can at best be called as 'passive users', who even do not (care to) know that a list exists on the internet. Some Indian universities have started using OpenJUMP for vector GIS. 
Ravi Kumar

--- On Sat, 22/8/09, Daniel Ames <amesdani at isu.edu> wrote:

> From: Daniel Ames <amesdani at isu.edu>
> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Open Source Lurkers
> To: "OSGeo Discussions" <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
> Date: Saturday, 22 August, 2009, 10:24 AM
> Landon, et al.
> 
> I'm aware of this phenomenon in the MapWindow community
> as well. It is particularly prominent with non-English
> speaking folks who, for a number of reasons (mostly
> described by Bill below) don't feel comfortable joining
> the conversation and openly participating in the project.
> 
> 
> I think there is another clear reason for this behavior...
> they sometimes just don't know that they are
> welcome/invited. This might be more of a pronounced problem
> for those of us developing specifically for Windows because
> Windows users have historically been told that they are not
> allowed to participate. 
> 
> 
> However it's also a phenomenon of GIS in general. When
> was the last time that the major GIS software vendor asked
> it's customers to actively join in writing
> documentation, answering forum questions and - heaven forbid
> - fixing bugs. 
> 
> 
> So how do you fix this. Well all I can think is to
> continually invite invite invite. Everytime someone posts a
> forum question, give an answer and then invite them to
> answer other people's questions. When people ask for bug
> fixes, invite them to fix a big - or to hire someone to do
> it.  Any time you get a personal communication, invite them
> to do something on the project.
> 
> 
> This has helped a lot with our project, and I think
> we've landed some awesome project participants (some of
> whom are likely reading this now!) by letting them know how
> much we need them, and inviting them over and over to
> participate.
> 
> 
> That's my suggestion anyway,
> 
> Dan
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 4:53 AM,
> Bill Thoen <bthoen at gisnet.com>
> wrote:
> 
> I've been a moderator for a
> commercial desktop mapping forum for more than 10 years and
> this behavior is quite common. I think it has more to do
> with how people adapt to a social network than it has to do
> with anything unique in the Open Source world. Like Chris
> mentioned, the majority of subscribers prefer to lurk below
> the public visibility horizon in a way that resembles an
> iceberg where only the tip remains above the waterline while
> the majority of its bulk lurks below.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> People lurk for many of the reasons you suggest, but I
> think the most common one is that they don't feel expert
> enough to contribute anything useful to a thread, and the
> risk of saying something "stoopid" --in public...
> and worse, thus revealing to their GIS/mapping peers the
> depth of their ignorance-- is just too embarrassing to
> contemplate. Especially when compared with the perceived
> safety of remaining anonymous in the shadows where they can
> drink in new knowledge like free beer while also being
> entertained by the interplay of the forum's regularly
> featured fools and sages.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If we assume that Maslow was right about what motivates
> people (self-interest) then lurking in an open source
> community and not participating is exactly the wrong thing
> to do. If your business depends on some FOSS tool, then
> it's in your self-interest to expand the environment in
> which it operates as much as possible. Because if what you
> sell depends on tools like OpenJUMP, you want OpenJUMP well
> supported with a lively user group, a good supply of free
> data, technologically competitive, and actively being
> developed. This is the key to making money out of bits
> instead of atoms. If you sell services, give away the
> software and the infrastructure of the environment it runs
> in. This expands the market for your services and since the
> tools are free, the more people who download them the bigger
> your market share gets. If you sell software, give away
> services that leverage it. But if you lurk and don't
> contribute to its development or the development of the
> environment in which it operates, then you're sort of
> stepping on your own air hose.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> - Bill Thoen
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Landon Blake wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I would like to get some comments on a phenomenon I have
> discovered among the OpenJUMP community. I know for sure of
> one (1) company that maintains a separate fork of OpenJUMP,
> but which monitors our mailing list and likely grabs patches
> form our source code repository. They never participate in
> the forums or make known their use of OpenJUMP in any other
> public manner.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I think there is at least one other company that does
> this.
> 
> 
> 
> I only learn of these companies when I am contacted by
> private e-mail to work for them on OpenJUMP development,
> usually by some headhunter. I actually did a little work for
> one of these companies (which was not a great experience,
> but that is another story) and I was surprised at how
> important OpenJUMP was to their operation. They even
> distributed it to their customers.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why this company
> wouldn’t take a more active role in supporting the
> OpenJUMP community. I’m not necessarily talking about
> money here, but about writing documentation, contributing
> their own patches, or answering questions on the mailing
> lists. Our community is very informal and open, and an
> organization could likely have a large influence on the
> direction the program took with an investment of some
> resources.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Is OpenJUMP the only community with these open source
> lurkers? How many of these companies do you think there are?
> (I’m not talking about one guy who downloads an open
> source app and uses it. I’m talking about actual companies
> with more than one employee.)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Why don’t they get more involved? Are they embarrassed?
> Do they not want their competition to find out about the
> open source program they are benefiting from? Are they
> violating the terms of the license and don’t want to get
> busted? Do they not understand that their involvement is a
> key part of the program’s survival?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This has become an important question for me recently as
> the active development of OpenJUMP has slowed. We don’t
> have any organizations actively participating in
> development. (Well, maybe one or two, but they have been
> quiet lately.) I’m the only one working on serious
> improvements or changes, and not just bug fixes. I would
> really like to reach out to these lurkers to get them more
> involved. Ultimately, the survival of the project may depend
> on it.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> What do you think? Send an e-mail to the project list with
> an invitation to contact me privately about getting more
> involved? Are these lurkers worth the time?
> 
> 
> 
> Landon
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> -- 
> Daniel P. Ames, Ph.D. PE
> Associate Professor, Geosciences
> Idaho State University - Idaho Falls
> amesdani at isu.edu
> 
> www.hydromap.com
> www.mapwindow.org
> 
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