[OSGeo-Discuss] [Board] Funding code Sprints

Sun Mar 6 08:25:46 PST 2016

Jody,
I guess you could say wanting to improve our design for solutions is a kind of social advocacy. Certainly where we put our money is a kind of social advocacy. Since the idea came up for where OSGeo would put its money, I wanted to give it some thought and impregnate it with my ‘prejudice.’ I love your expression for our idea that we “look into the depths of how software and their communities function and stay healthy.”  :-)
-Patrick

From: Jody Garnett [mailto:jody.garnett at gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 6, 2016 8:01 AM
To: Ian Turton; Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX)
Cc: discuss at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Board] Funding code Sprints

I expect Patrick is looking more for social advocacy. Sprints are often devoted to the boring software development - that if we are lucky can enable so much more ...

OSGeo is a software foundation, so we will look into the depths of how software and their communities function and stay healthy. There is of course lots more good to do on the world - which is why we partner with other organizations.
On Sun, Mar 6, 2016 at 7:57 AM Ian Turton <ijturton at gmail.com<mailto:ijturton at gmail.com>> wrote:
Patrick,

Again you are misunderstanding how sprints (at least in the GeoJava tribe) work - we plan for weeks (or months) before hand to make the most of the limited time we have with the developers all in the same room and time zone there is no brain storming at the event or quilting. We arrive with a plan and execute that plan. Others are welcome to participate from a remote location (as I did with the last GeoServer sprint) but there is inevitably less interaction when you are 8 hours out of phase with the participants.

I'd love to spend my days crafting new cathedrals but there isn't the demand from customers for that so mostly we work at incremental improvements to our existing code base. Every so often we can join together to throw up a new wing or (more often) fix the leaky roof that is annoying but that no one want's to pay to fix, which is where funding from the OSGEO comes in otherwise the code will just slowly rot until it all falls apart and the customers go back to being gouged by proprietary suppliers who can ignore the rot and just sell on the new shiny paint job.

Ian

On 6 March 2016 at 15:40, Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX) <patrick.hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov>> wrote:
Andrea,
The world needs a more peaceful approach to the future. That’s not what we have in a world that is rapidly disassembling, obviously with individual exceptions. So yes, a portion of the real world necessarily operates with a high degree of chaos. And though it may appear the norm, it is not the condition we aspire to, nor one that most allows for wise decisions. Brainstorming ideas is certainly a different exercise than the careful crafting required for long-standing solutions. I am suggesting we engender the more thoughtful approach, not surrender to the one of surviving chaos, given ‘your’ coding environment. I think of sprints as good for brainstorming, and yes, the dynamic sharing of ideas is very important. But I still see it as a patchwork quilt, not the venue for accumulating a masterpiece. I realize the world is not simply made of masterpieces, but we need them, and we can do more to engender them. And of course pursue with gusto, plenty of stimulating drinks and high moments of constructive exchange and recognized simpatico.
-Patrick

From: andrea.aime at gmail.com<mailto:andrea.aime at gmail.com> [mailto:andrea.aime at gmail.com<mailto:andrea.aime at gmail.com>] On Behalf Of Andrea Aime
Sent: Sunday, March 6, 2016 6:32 AM
To: Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX)
Cc: Ian Turton; discuss at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Board] Funding code Sprints

On Sun, Mar 6, 2016 at 3:18 PM, Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX) <patrick.hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov>> wrote:
It appears to me that even these more-substantial-than-hackathons sprints do not reflect the typical work environment for code development. I will suggest that requires more of the 'deep thought' Leonardo approach versus the more intuitive 'just start chiseling' of a Michelangelo.

Patrick, it seems to be you imagining a work environment that's quite different from the one a software developer in a company doing consulting (typical open source setup) has.

My normal work environment requires me to work for 2-5 different customers a day spanning from training, spec-ing and designing new modules/applications, meetings, and actual development, along with answering questions from my colleagues on other activities, often unrelated to the ones that I'm in charge of.
During a typical open source code sprint I'm focused on a single activity all day instead.

To be clear, I'm not complaining, if my daily work was single activity I'd walk away out of boredom, what keeps the typical code sprint
engaging is also that we normally take on activity that seem hard to fit in the allowed time, and thus require some
extras in terms of concentration and inventiveness to actually get completed :-p

I'd say the recipe for a typical successful open source code sprint is:
* Several developers in the same room, that are normally working from remote in different time zones
* An ambitious objective (not so large/difficult that it's impossible to complete, but enough that you cannot relax and finish it anyways)
* Typically, full day experience (e.g., we have lunch and dinner together too)
* Coffee... lots of it :-p

Cheers
Andrea

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