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The Open Source movement has produced some of the world's finest software through the cooperation of developers worldwide. While it may be the most effective way of writing software the planet has ever seen, it creates its own communication challenges, as well. The days of private, closed-door meetings in pretty offices are over; disputes of all kinds are dealt with publically.

For those lucky enough to live close to people working on their project, development conversations can take place at the local pub, but it's not always that easy. The typical method of communication in Open Source project development is the time-honored mailing list.

The problems with E-mail are numerous, and using smileys and winks only get you so far. In many ways, people communicating via E-mail have the same issues that were addressed back in the BBS days. Sarcasm is a difficult thing to convey, and most programmers are not professional writers. This is also a problem in the private sector, but it's a lot easier to talk your differences out with a beer after work when the person you're arguing with works two cubicles away, and not on the other side of the planet.

If you're working on an Open Source project, the chances are good that you've never met most of the people working on it, unless you and your project-mates frequent Linux tradeshows and the like. However, the rapid deployment of PGP and GPG help authenticate that you're getting mail from who you think it is, not an impostor.

Impostor or not, it's very easy to get impolite when sitting in front of the keyboard, and Open Source project mailing lists are no exception. You've got the basic bugbears of E-mail communication, combined with the very real chances that most of the developers haven't slept in a few days. It's easy to get snippy, especially with the realization that most of the people working on the project are there because they love to program, not because they are being paid to do so.

While mailing lists represent the tried-and-true method of disseminating information among your development brethen, it's not the only way. IRC has been used as a development meetingplace for a while, but also has its own problems. Netsplits, nick problems, and the occasional channel flood can make things difficult.

Jeremie Plante, occasional developer for RPGen, brought up a communication problem of a temporal nature. "I used to have a friend from another time zone who was coding with me, and that was a problem for IRC meetings and other real-time communication. Open Source development takes place all around the world, so time zone is an issue."

One of the biggest problems is that all arguments are usually very public, and can lead to a political struggle within the project. The argument between Eric Raymond and Bruce Perens, although it took place over a year ago, is still fresh in people's minds. When the mainstream media has their ears on the Linux railroad track listening for the oncoming train, they are more than willing to consider an argument between two Linux people as a portent that the house of cards is about to fall. Decentralization of control leads people to believe that just about anyone can be in charge, and the media will consistently rally around the loudest.

Debates and arguments about licensing and definitions of 'free software' will continue to rage on in newsgroups, mailing lists and IRC channels. While some view these issues as divisive, many more inside the community feel that these arguments and debates represent the diversity necessary for Open Source to remain strong and successful.

Jean-Marc asks this question: "Someone already asked how to comtribute to open-source projects. Now I ask the complementary question: We have an open-source project idea, now how do we get started? In that case, I'm talking about a project that has to involve more than just developers. (For those interrested, it's speech recognition for Linux)"

PsyKotyk wrote in to say that GNOME has released the 0.99 version of the manual for, well, GNOME obviously. Let the Guide guide you.

ChrisRijk writes "Netpedia are offering free web-space (no banners, no references to netpedia) for people doing open source projects. " Its nice to have a few formalized places for folks needing space and bandwidth for projects. And without those obnoxious floating geocities logos too!