FOSS Community Collaboration By: Karlie Robinson For: RIT September 14, 2010

What does Collaboration look like?

Tolerating one's own ignorance ● No one knows everything – That includes you! ● The biggest hurdle FOSS Developers must face is learning how to learn. ● The barriers you face are in your head. ● Good problem solvers will win the day!

Fail Early! Fail Often! ● AKA – Try, try again. ● Studies show that you learn more from a failure than from success ● Early release also invites feedback. ● Yes, it's a beta but where are the problems? ● I know you didn't find every bug.

Vacuum Builds will Suck! ● Software is always moving forward ● Isolation removes you from forward progress. ● Releasing early and often will allow you to keep up with current technologies.

Asking Questions ● Open and free sharing is the basis of Collaboration in the FOSS community. ● Information is found... ● In Wikis ● Via IRC ● Mailing lists

Asking Good Questions ● RTFM still lives but in a more polite form. ● Documentation exists, ● Answers exist. ● Therefor you should attempt to educate yourself before asking.

“Google before you tweet is the new think before you speak”

Searching Your first instinct should be to find the nearest search box. ● Documentation, Documentation, Documentation! ● Some are better writers than others. ● RIT is one of the best for Docs

IRC ● Internet Relay Chat ● Created in August 1988 ● Similar to Instant Messaging, but designed for group conversations rather than one-to-one communications.

And More IRC ● Meeting bots and other tools exist. ● Learning basic commands WILL make your life easier ● ● ●

IRC – Keep in mind ● Stay on Topic! ● Ping – The art of getting someone's attention ● Users can be in multiple channels or working with the client running in the background ● Most IRC clients have a beep, flash, icon or other method of notification for incoming message.

Mailing Lists ● Use when you want to update a lot of people at once. ● Use when an IRC channel is quiet. ● You'll usually find list links with IRC & other contact information.

Mail and More Mail ● Some mailing lists are very busy and can overwhelm you. ● If you do choose Digest, take the time to update your subject line!

Mailing list Tips ● Feel free to snip and reply inline. ● View as Threads ● Set up filters for your lists ● Most good lists will have subject headers - [Math4]

List Etiquette ● Stay on topic. ● Change the Subject if you change the topic. ● Be sure to reply to the list! ● Only cross post if really necessary. ● I only need 1 copy of your message.

Warped Time ● Time does not exist as you know it in the FOSS realm. ● FOSS is a Global Community with people coming online at every hour.

Credits Background image - “Colorful flowers” by Martine Lemmens Live Links an other info at karlierobinson.blogspot.com Use RIT or TOS tags for faster searching.