Re: Open Source - Enterprise Consumer Participation -- request for Article

["Stormy Peters" <stormy gnome org>]

Thanks, Brian. Great feedback as always.

Just so everyone is reviewing the same thing. Here's an up to date draft and I'm waiting on some more comments/changes.

Stormy


 
 
 


 
 
 


 
 
 


 
 
 


 
 
 


 
 
 
How do GNOME Consumers play with the GNOME community?
by Stormy Peters

GNOME has 14 million users, people that consume GNOME technology. They
use GNOME technologies and
software in a multitude of ways. Some GNOME consumers use the full
GNOME
desktop on their workstation. Others just use GNOME applications like
multimedia tools for photo editing or
listening to music. Still others run GNOME software on their
smart phone.
Some users might even be using GNOME in the doctor's office. When their
doctor uses an Supersonic Imagine scanner, they are using GNOME
technologies to detect breast cancer. When children around the world
use their One Laptop Per Child XO, they are using GNOME technologies.
What is true in all cases is that
the end user probably didn't download GNOME
or the GNOME applications directly from the GNOME community. 

The GNOME project produces a lot of very powerful and useful
software for millions of users. This software is produced by the GNOME
community, a community of developers, translators, QA testers, and
documentation writers among others. With several thousand developers
and many fans, it's a community that is long lived, vocal and pretty
close knit for such a large group. GNOME consumers are represented in
the
community by technical users and organizations that distribute GNOME
technologies. And while the GNOME community reaches out
regularly to non-technical end users and is extremely welcoming of any
that approach the community, the world of the non-technical GNOME user
and the GNOME community rarely interact. Why do the users and the
community rarely interact? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?


The GNOME developer community would like to hear more from end users -
they think about them all the time. However, there are several reasons
that non-technical GNOME users and the GNOME community do not interact
as much as the GNOME community would like.

• The main reason GNOME users and community don't interact is because most GNOME users, whether they are using a desktop, a netbook or a cell phone running GNOME Mobile technologies, they all get GNOME from a vendor, not the GNOME community. They might not even know they are using GNOME! They might be listening to music with Banshee, editing their photos with gimp and managing their finances with gnucash and yet have no idea that they use "GNOME". They probably got their GNOME technologies from a vendor. So when it comes to interacting with the GNOME community, the first thing the user has to do is find the community! So when they run into a problem with GNOME (or they have something good to say!), they usually end up on a GNU/Linux distribution site. Or if they were using a Garmin 880 GPS, they'll call Garmin, not GNOME, when there's an issue with the software. In most cases, this is a good thing. The end user is using a product from a company that happens to include or be built on GNOME technologies. While the GNOME community of developers would like to hear their feedback, it doesn't always make sense to introduce an additional relationship to the end user, not when they've paid for a warranty or support from a vendor.
  
• Another reason users don't always end up interacting with the GNOME community is the communication tools that are used by the community. Most non-technical users end up on forums. Whether that's their preferred method of communication or not, I couldn't say, but it's easy to find via a Google search and easy to jump in. Whereas most GNOME hackers hang out on IRC and mailing lists. To find the GNOME community on IRC, you have to look for IRC, the conversations are not typically picked up by search engines.
  
• Lastly, GNOME users often look for the GNOME community only when they've encountered a problem and they discover that to report it they need to learn bugzilla or subscribe to a mailing list. So by the time they are reaching out to the community, they are not looking for relationships or to make suggestions, rather they have an immediate problem that they need help with. Instead of finding someone who can immediately answer their question (although that does happen), the process directs them to tools like bugzilla that they may not be familiar with.
  

So if GNOME users don't participate in the GNOME project through the
traditional GNOME community channels, how do they participate? How can
users contribute? How can they be part of the community? We often talk
about users being the
ultimate testers and contributing bug reports, and if they are
technical, perhaps a patch, or maybe some documentation. But users
contribute in many other ways.

• Users test software. Some users do test software. Hopefully end users are testing already well tested software but occasionally they run into problems. Or they get excited about a new project and download a non-released version that still needs testing. At the Maemo Summit, I heard a Nokia manager thank a group of developers for being his guinea pigs. In a sense, all open source users are testers. The ones earlier in the process contribute by reporting any problems they run into. The others continue to make sure it works. They also contribute feedback via blog posts, talks, articles, etc.
  
• Users spread the word, recruiting more users and developers to open source software. I know a high school student who discovered Open Office and Google docs. She saved her mom the money it would have cost to buy Microsoft Office. I'm sure she told her friends and her mom told other parents. Happy users spread the word about the software they are using. GNOME software now includes great integration of system and applications (like plugging in your camera and having F-spot automatically import pictures) as well as very reasonably priced software that meets accessibility needs. Many people are finding that many accessibility solutions from speech synthesis to drawing tablets to eye trackers work well in GNOME and the software is free. Free software is also a good fit for people that want to promote free trade.
  
• Users motivate developers.  When users talk, blog or show GNOME, they are not only spreading the word, they are also giving kudos to the developers, something that's incredibly motivating. GNOME developers enjoy writing software but they also really enjoy hearing how that software is changing people's lives, from the kid using a XO in Africa to the kid in the US that can't see using a screen reader. Knowing your software is helping someone else is very motivating.
  
• Users also lend credibility to a project, enabling it to grow. Hearing that Firefox has had millions of downloads or that GNOME has 14 million users definitely makes it sound like something that's safe to try and maybe even something you should try.
• Financially. Directly and indirectly users contribute to the financial well being of GNOME. Sometimes they purchase support or products from companies that sponsor the GNOME Foundation. Sometimes they contribute directly to the GNOME Foundation through Friends of GNOME. All of these contributions flow back to efforts that support the project from hackfests to usability studies.
• User groups. Through user groups people help support each other and spread the word about GNOME.
  

Users are the audience for GNOME. The GNOME project's goal is universal
access. Making sure technology is available to anyone, not just
technical people, regardless of culture, financial well-being or
physical ability is what GNOME is all about. The fact that people use
it makes the project a success, the developers happy and keeps the
whole thing going. 


The GNOME developer community works really hard to understand its users
and to make sure that the
default options, the ones that most users will first encounter, make
sense. They have also put a lot of thought and effort into making sure
that GNOME is accessible to all users regardless of ability. They work
hard to communicate their core values to all users: free software,
internationalization and
localization, usability, and accessibility,
and to make sure users are welcome, especially at GUADEC, our annual
conference. But whether users show up in the developer community or
not, they are definitely contributing members of the GNOME community. 

You can find the GNOME community in the following places:

• GNOME Mailing Lists, http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo
• GNOME IRC channels, http://live.gnome.org/GnomeIrcChannels
• GNOME bugzilla, http://bugzilla.gnome.org/
• GNOME user groups, http://live.gnome.org/UserGroups