meritocracy in kde
DESCRIPTION
These are the slides of the presentation at the Akademy KDE conference of 2012. Based on the already great way of how KDE governance works, I identified areas where we excel (developer relations, contributor fluctuation), and areas where we can improve (relations to users and to companies or institutions in general. The talk was recorded, the video will hopefully be up soon.TRANSCRIPT
Yes No
Go coding/fishing/diving...
Is life peachy?
Stick head in sand.
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Meritocracy in KDE
Part of the “Companies are Community” series
Akademy 2012
Mirko Boehm ([email protected])
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CWD: ~miroslav@silberpfeil: >whoami
- KDE Contributor since 1997:-- Hacking (kdecore, kdepim, applications)-- board member 1999 to 2006-- Desktop Summit 2011- FSFE Germany team member- researching Free Software and Intellectual Property issues at TU Berlin- married, two kids, lives in BerlinCWD: ~miroslav@silberpfeil: >
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How things get better - an algorithmic perspective.
Yes No
Take appropriate action.
Go coding/fishing/diving...
Is life peachy?
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Observe Part I
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Is life peachy at KDE?
• Surprise: Yes, it is. (Mostly.)
• KDE - Largest meritocratic volunteer driven FLOSS community.
• Outstanding product.
• Stable contributor base, easy to join, healthy fluctuation.
• Role model for how communites work.
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Symptoms of Friction
• Users complaining about lack of quality improvements.
• Users complaining about lack of transparency.
• Contributors leaving for non-technical reasons.
• Failure to integrate commercial ecosystem.
• Problems establishing vendor pickup.
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How are others doing?
• Open Governance Index: “Equal and fair treatment of developers – ‘meritocracy’ – has become the norm, and is expected by developers with regard to their involvement in open source projects.” [1]
• Here is Sebas’ and my assessment of KDE’s rating: 74%, second best.
Android Qt Symbian MeeGo Mozilla WebKit Linux KDE Eclipse
100
0
10
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50
60
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80
90
Perc
ent
Poin
ts
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Reflect Part II
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Voice or Exit
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Community
• Meritocracy of all individuals who contribute
• Self-directed
• All doors open approach
• (S)He who does the work decides
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KDE e.V.
• Stakeholder’s association of volunteer contributors
• Only individual membership, no entities
• Invite-only membership
• Passive, supporting membership models
• Secret by default
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The role of commercial contributors
Formal Economy Informal Economy
Peer Production
Companies Volunteers
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Act! Part III
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Our vision: Improve by default
Get better in every iteration
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Proposal: Extend the Code of Conduct
Contributor’s Rights and Responsibilities
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Contributor’s Responsibilities
• Be open about goals
• Be transparent about activities
• Be committed longer-term
• Be generous
• Be humble
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New: Contributor’s Rights
• Influence development
• Be an equal among peers
• Benefit from own contributions
• Be part of the community, collaborate
• Exercise the Four Freedoms
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Proposal: Open by Default
Improve Transparency
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Minimize Discrimination
• Technical vs. non-technical contributors
• Volunteers vs. companies
• Users vs. contributors vs. e.V. members
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Thank you for listening! Questions?
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References
• [1] http://www.visionmobile.com/product/open-governance-index • Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44523343@N00/474411576/
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