Re: Need Leadership

["natan yellin" <aantny gmail com>]

On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 5:03 PM, natan yellin <aantny gmail com> wrote:

On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 3:16 PM, Thomas H.P. Andersen <phomes gmail com> wrote:

> That's a bit of an exaggeration, but there is something to what Leslie said.
> Personally, I felt that in the case of GHOP, the grand prize was more
> important to most people than the money or the t-shirt.

Well, maybe. I was not part of it. I do remember her saying that some
students who did not get picked wanted to continue anyway just of the
t-shirt. But sure. Money counts a lot too.

>> Wearing a soc t-shirt gets you recognition from your fellow hackers.
>> Having a "diploma" from google in your CV gets you recognition from a
>> future employer.
>
> It's a bit early to focus on specifics, but don't use the word diploma.
> Something like "First Place 2009 GNOME Design Winner" sounds better even if
> it's more verbose.

Sorry, I wasn't being clear. I should have told you my position and
motivation for this. I'm about to start the last year of my master and
will soon start doing job interviews. By "diploma" I meant a nicely
laid out document summarizing my contributions to gnome. I feel that
what I have learned from doing gnome stuff is almost as important as
my degree and I would like to be able to document that at a job
interview. Hence the "dimploma". (sorry about that word. I don't know
what to use instead.)

I understand. Open source does provide great experience, and an official document summarizing your contributions and skills is more meaningful than a few sentences on your resume in which you detail your involvement yourself.

>> Could we do something like that? A t-shirt for mvp hacker(s) of the
>> year? Perhaps by vote from foundation members or the like? An official
>> looking pretty printed/printable "diploma" summarizing ones
>> contribution to gnome?
>
> That _does_ sound a bit lame, but perhaps thats just me. I think a better
> approach would be to have an awards ceremony at GUADEC (formal events make a
> much better impression), pay for the winner's flight, and give them a cash
> prize, no matter how small and insignificant it is. It's not necessary, but
> giving them a nice and shiny trophy like Apple does would also be a good
> idea.

That's great for getting credit among your fellow hackers. That was
what I thought the t-shirt would accomplish. Either way is good. One
is just more expensive and I think money is a very limited resource
for such a thing. 

While they both carry _some_ meaning, even just a paid ticket to GUADEC is a lot more meaningful then a t-shirt recieved in the mail.
The ticket implies that they've done extremely good work, and not only do they deserve recognition for that, but they get to attend GUADEC so that they can continue to contribute more productively in the future.

It's all about motivating developers to do more stuff. I personally
care about getting a pad on the back for doing good work from fellow
hackers and I also care about how I can do stuff to help me get a good
job. Whatever means gets us there is fine :)

As you said, there are two issues here:

1. People want something that they can show when they get hired.
2. People appreciate recognition.

- Thomas H.P. Andersen

Natan