You are welcome. You're right, it is a chicken-and-egg problem. I think you need to make it accessible to developers and hackers first in order to make the project feel welcoming even if no-one has specifically asked yet. People may have seen your website, "asked" the question to themselves, and then assumed that new developers where not entirely welcome (I am not saying that you are not welcoming new developers, merely that it could appear that way). The book I linked to goes into a lot more detail and explains it a lot better than I can here. It is definitely worth a cover-to-cover read. I haven't started any open source projects myself, but I will have that book handy for easy reference if I ever do.
What can I do to encourage wider use of the application, and what can I do to get more developers interested in development and bugfixing?
First, check out the book Producing Open Source Software, I found it to be a very informative read. As a starting place, your website needs a little help. It's a little bland but that's not the big problem. It needs to be obvious right-away how I, as someone interested in the project, can get involved. You have the mailing list info which is a good start but a look through the archives proves to be quite lacking activity. Your three target groups are end-users, hackers, and developers. How would someone start "hacking" or just playing with your software? Give them some documentation. What is the process for becoming a developer? Where do I submit patches, how do I get commit access to the repository? Where do I submit bug reports?
You need to also ask yourself if you're really ready to release this as an open source project. I don't mean literally under an open source license, like you have done. I mean, are you ready to let a community of developers and users take control of your project and take it in directions you may have not considered? It's been your baby so far (from what I can tell) so this could be quite a change for you but the rewards could be great.
So long as the NZ authorities aren't modifying the code, they'll be fine.
So long as they aren't modifying and (as you did mention) the code. They can can modify it as much as they want and not have to release their source code if they just use it internally.
It looks like you have two options, get a dedicated server from someone like EV1 Servers for $99/month or setup your own box on your broadband connection (assuming you have broadband). I use EV1 and I would recommend them if you want a dedicated server and are willing to do your own system administration.
As far as software I'd recommend Subversion for source countrol, Bugzilla for bug tracking, and MediaWiki for general documentation. I'm in the process of setting this up for my own projects right now.
Get a new job working for yourself or a start-up. Large companies (like the one you are working for) tend to have a lot of bureaucracy. Smaller companies tend to have less bureaucracy. Not to say this has to always be the case, there are certainly exceptions. Good luck changing the IT culture. Once a corporation or a department develops a certain culture or way of operating it is usually very difficult to change. Sorry, this is probably not what you wanted to hear.
Yes, I as well watched it in school live. I lived in New Hampshire, I think I was in third or fourth grade at the time. The teacher just shut off the TV and didn't say or explain anything. Not that she could have explained it if she tried so I don't fault her. They sent us all home early that day.
Look at Pete Ashdown's wiki. Imagine how that would turn out if it was for a candidate with half a snowball's chance in hell.
I took a quick look at it and am not sure what you mean. Maybe you could expand on your point. A wiki works if you can mobilize a community around the purpose of the wiki. If it's just the politician's staff writing on it then that won't work very well. A political campaign wiki would need to engage real people and get real people to write content (I didn't read enough of Pete Ashdown's wiki to determine if that is the case in this example). So, you might ask, what about vandalism? OK, how's this for spin? Politician: "My opponent has stooped to the level of recruiting people to vandalize my campaign wiki instead of mobilizing them to write legitimate content." That's one quick way to mitigate vandalism, use it as ammunition against the opponent.
This all start with the Howard Dean campaign using blogging and other online tools to raise money. Now other politicians are catching on to how they can use it. Blogging is old news to slashdotters but I'm sure there are a lot of politicians who still would ask, "What's a blog again?" In the next few years (maybe in '08) I predict someone will tap into the power of wikis for campaigning and fund-raising purposes. But let's let them get their heads around blogs first:-)
Glad to see other universities are following the trend set by MIT with their OpenCourseWare project. It's interesting to see universities have faith that putting this content out for public consumption will not detract from their mission.
Microsoft seems to be so rushed to push it's customers through the forced upgrade cycle that they have destroyed the product. It's pretty depressing, because you could take Excel from 10 years ago and it would be a Best-in-Class product today.
I think we're on a similar page here. Microsoft has "upgraded" and added "features" to a product that was already pretty well complete. They took a product that worked and broke it. Why? It goes back to my original point. Users get stuck and don't think to look beyond the few features they've gotten comfortable with. Telling users that "all the features you need are already there" doesn't work when you're asking them to fork out money for an upgrade. Why would users pay money for an upgrade if there aren't new features? MS answer was to shove more, unnecessary features into the product or repackage existing features in a way that could be sold as a "new" feature.
Yup, that speaks volumes to how well the user interface was designed. Kudos!
Well designed programs make it very easy to just jump in and start working. This creates a bit of a paradox. Once the user has discovered the boundaries of the "it just works" parts of the application they often don't wander into more advanced areas of the application. This may seem like bad interface design, but what's the alternative? Make it obvious to the user what all of the features are right upfront? If you dumped all of the features of Excel on the average user the first time they opened the application they would become extremely overwhelmed. You need to ease a user into an application, make them feel like it's simple and easy to use and then slowly unveil the more advanced features. The risk is that users stop looking once they've got the application to do the basic things the user wants out of it. Then, later on, when the user wants more advanced features they assume those features don't exist in the application they were using because of course they would have seen it! So, what do they do? The start exploring VBA or try and find another program to buy while all-along those features are a few mouse clicks away! Oh, and how the hell did you trick me into defending Micro$oft?
As much as it is in fashion to bash Microsoft, I must say they did a very good job with Excel. No matter how well you think you know the program, you most likely have more to learn. So many times I've had people ask me how to do something in Excel/VBA and I tell them, "Don't use VBA - that feature is already built into Excel". So, before you DIY try reading up on some of the features of Excel.
As I side note, I use to teach Excel to an adult student who just didn't "get" some of the concepts. Every session he would ask me, "what's this I-F function for again?" He didn't even get that it was the IF function and not the I-F function as if I and F were letters of an acronym. Let me tell you, that was frustrating every class.
He suggests we should be writing a practical guidebook printed on long lasting paper...
Won't creating more paper just hasten the coming apocalypse? Hopefully it's at least post-consumer chlorine-free recycled paper printed with soy-based ink.
I think slashdot submitters intentionally make the story title and/or summary misleading to trip up people like you who don't read the associated links (or even the summary for that matter). By "invite only" they mean that you can give Google your e-mail address and they will send you an e-mail when they think you are deserving of a Google Analytics account. I can verify that, as a user of Google Analytics, I do not have the ability to send invites.
Slashdot Mirror
Or they could get "Gmail for your domain" :-)
I wonder what kind of ads they would get?
You are welcome. You're right, it is a chicken-and-egg problem. I think you need to make it accessible to developers and hackers first in order to make the project feel welcoming even if no-one has specifically asked yet. People may have seen your website, "asked" the question to themselves, and then assumed that new developers where not entirely welcome (I am not saying that you are not welcoming new developers, merely that it could appear that way). The book I linked to goes into a lot more detail and explains it a lot better than I can here. It is definitely worth a cover-to-cover read. I haven't started any open source projects myself, but I will have that book handy for easy reference if I ever do.
First, check out the book Producing Open Source Software, I found it to be a very informative read. As a starting place, your website needs a little help. It's a little bland but that's not the big problem. It needs to be obvious right-away how I, as someone interested in the project, can get involved. You have the mailing list info which is a good start but a look through the archives proves to be quite lacking activity. Your three target groups are end-users, hackers, and developers. How would someone start "hacking" or just playing with your software? Give them some documentation. What is the process for becoming a developer? Where do I submit patches, how do I get commit access to the repository? Where do I submit bug reports?
You need to also ask yourself if you're really ready to release this as an open source project. I don't mean literally under an open source license, like you have done. I mean, are you ready to let a community of developers and users take control of your project and take it in directions you may have not considered? It's been your baby so far (from what I can tell) so this could be quite a change for you but the rewards could be great.
Oops, had had my morning coffee yet
OK, I should just stop until I've had some coffee.
Oops, had had my morning coffee yet. I typed:
modifying and <redistributing>
instead of:
modifying and redistributing
So long as the NZ authorities aren't modifying the code, they'll be fine.
So long as they aren't modifying and (as you did mention) the code. They can can modify it as much as they want and not have to release their source code if they just use it internally.
It looks like you have two options, get a dedicated server from someone like EV1 Servers for $99/month or setup your own box on your broadband connection (assuming you have broadband). I use EV1 and I would recommend them if you want a dedicated server and are willing to do your own system administration.
As far as software I'd recommend Subversion for source countrol, Bugzilla for bug tracking, and MediaWiki for general documentation. I'm in the process of setting this up for my own projects right now.
Get a new job working for yourself or a start-up. Large companies (like the one you are working for) tend to have a lot of bureaucracy. Smaller companies tend to have less bureaucracy. Not to say this has to always be the case, there are certainly exceptions. Good luck changing the IT culture. Once a corporation or a department develops a certain culture or way of operating it is usually very difficult to change. Sorry, this is probably not what you wanted to hear.
Yes, I as well watched it in school live. I lived in New Hampshire, I think I was in third or fourth grade at the time. The teacher just shut off the TV and didn't say or explain anything. Not that she could have explained it if she tried so I don't fault her. They sent us all home early that day.
Look at Pete Ashdown's wiki. Imagine how that would turn out if it was for a candidate with half a snowball's chance in hell.
I took a quick look at it and am not sure what you mean. Maybe you could expand on your point. A wiki works if you can mobilize a community around the purpose of the wiki. If it's just the politician's staff writing on it then that won't work very well. A political campaign wiki would need to engage real people and get real people to write content (I didn't read enough of Pete Ashdown's wiki to determine if that is the case in this example). So, you might ask, what about vandalism? OK, how's this for spin? Politician: "My opponent has stooped to the level of recruiting people to vandalize my campaign wiki instead of mobilizing them to write legitimate content." That's one quick way to mitigate vandalism, use it as ammunition against the opponent.
This all start with the Howard Dean campaign using blogging and other online tools to raise money. Now other politicians are catching on to how they can use it. Blogging is old news to slashdotters but I'm sure there are a lot of politicians who still would ask, "What's a blog again?" In the next few years (maybe in '08) I predict someone will tap into the power of wikis for campaigning and fund-raising purposes. But let's let them get their heads around blogs first :-)
the <blink> tag.
I must have blinked, I didn't see it the first time.
Glad to see other universities are following the trend set by MIT with their OpenCourseWare project. It's interesting to see universities have faith that putting this content out for public consumption will not detract from their mission.
Maybe they're just getting faster/better at finding bugs?
...a car would hit the pole at least once a month and knock out our power and/or phones
Damn car keeps hitting the same pole...
Actually, it's:
a tion+Technologist&word2=Red+Neck
Information Technologist: 8,050,000
Red Neck: 37,200,000
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?word1=Inform
Microsoft seems to be so rushed to push it's customers through the forced upgrade cycle that they have destroyed the product. It's pretty depressing, because you could take Excel from 10 years ago and it would be a Best-in-Class product today.
I think we're on a similar page here. Microsoft has "upgraded" and added "features" to a product that was already pretty well complete. They took a product that worked and broke it. Why? It goes back to my original point. Users get stuck and don't think to look beyond the few features they've gotten comfortable with. Telling users that "all the features you need are already there" doesn't work when you're asking them to fork out money for an upgrade. Why would users pay money for an upgrade if there aren't new features? MS answer was to shove more, unnecessary features into the product or repackage existing features in a way that could be sold as a "new" feature.
Yup, that speaks volumes to how well the user interface was designed. Kudos!
Well designed programs make it very easy to just jump in and start working. This creates a bit of a paradox. Once the user has discovered the boundaries of the "it just works" parts of the application they often don't wander into more advanced areas of the application. This may seem like bad interface design, but what's the alternative? Make it obvious to the user what all of the features are right upfront? If you dumped all of the features of Excel on the average user the first time they opened the application they would become extremely overwhelmed. You need to ease a user into an application, make them feel like it's simple and easy to use and then slowly unveil the more advanced features. The risk is that users stop looking once they've got the application to do the basic things the user wants out of it. Then, later on, when the user wants more advanced features they assume those features don't exist in the application they were using because of course they would have seen it! So, what do they do? The start exploring VBA or try and find another program to buy while all-along those features are a few mouse clicks away! Oh, and how the hell did you trick me into defending Micro$oft?
As much as it is in fashion to bash Microsoft, I must say they did a very good job with Excel. No matter how well you think you know the program, you most likely have more to learn. So many times I've had people ask me how to do something in Excel/VBA and I tell them, "Don't use VBA - that feature is already built into Excel". So, before you DIY try reading up on some of the features of Excel.
As I side note, I use to teach Excel to an adult student who just didn't "get" some of the concepts. Every session he would ask me, "what's this I-F function for again?" He didn't even get that it was the IF function and not the I-F function as if I and F were letters of an acronym. Let me tell you, that was frustrating every class.
He suggests we should be writing a practical guidebook printed on long lasting paper...
Won't creating more paper just hasten the coming apocalypse? Hopefully it's at least post-consumer chlorine-free recycled paper printed with soy-based ink.
I think slashdot submitters intentionally make the story title and/or summary misleading to trip up people like you who don't read the associated links (or even the summary for that matter). By "invite only" they mean that you can give Google your e-mail address and they will send you an e-mail when they think you are deserving of a Google Analytics account. I can verify that, as a user of Google Analytics, I do not have the ability to send invites.
By the way I heard Google will launch a free web statistics tool quite soon
4 5242&tid=217&tid=218
Old news: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/14/06
Yea, so fast that it had already happened. Your post is dated January 12. This article is dated November 14:4 5242&tid=217&tid=218
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/14/06
I've been on it since the day of that slashdot article.
.Mac is not $99.00 per year. It's $99.95, which makes his point even more valid and yours just incorrect.
It's a joke. Anyways, his point is correct but he's the one that gave the wrong price? Huh?
The article states that there are a million subscribers at $99 each. That's $100 million that Apple makes from .mac
Sorry to nitpick, but that's actually $99 million.