[LRUG] Paths to open source contributions

[Roland Swingler]

Hi,

My OSS contributions have been paltry, rather than impressive, so take
what I say with a pinch of salt. I've been motivated a little by all
of the things you suggest - some were driven by trying to get a better
feel for a project or type of project (jRuby for example - which sort
of fits with your option 3), others were motivated by needing to fix a
problem in an existing library or finding that something you've built
might be useful to others (options 1 & 2). What I haven't done (yet)
is set out from the beginning to "create an open source project to do
X": for me it seems a little more unplanned than that.

Cheers,
Roland

On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 2:54 PM, Vahagn Hayrapetyan <vahagnh at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,-
>
> I've been browsing the often impressive open source contributions of some of
> the Rails / Ruby luminaries when it struck me that I don't really understand
> how most open source projects originate. Essentially what I'd like to know
> is whether such contributions are most typically the bi-product of some main
> development effort or are they conceptualized and implemented for their own
> sake, from the very start.
>
> So if you have open source contributions, I hope you'll shed some light as
> to why you have them:
>
> You were solving a problem for yourself (a pet project perhaps), and ended
> up with extra code that you released as open source;
> You were working on someone else's problem (such as a client's), and ended
> up with extra code that you released as open source;
> You were bored and decided to make a contribution for the fun of it;
> You were being strategic. You realized that for the Kool Kids to work with
> you and the Beautiful People to go to bed with you, you NEED to have open
> source contributions before we arrive at web 3.12. (This is the path I'm
> feeling irresistibly pulled towards, by the force of destiny).
>
> As I realize that human behaviour is often influenced by several factors,
> compound answers (such as 1&4; or 3&4) are of particular interest.
>
> Thanks!
>
> / Vahagn
>
>
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