community contributions to MeeGo

[Alison Chaiken]

Here's something that's been annoying me for a while and has really
gotten up my nose this week: people asking more or less, "Are you
employed to work on MeeGo and or are you just a hobbyist?" The
language is so belittling! Let us not forget that Linux was started
by a "hobbyist."

I dislike the term "hobbyist." I propose that anyone asked such a
question call her/himself a "personal contributor" or "individual
contributor" to MeeGo. Without such enthusiastic individuals, our
efforts will fail. The passions of individuals are less subject to
management whim than the commitments of major corporations.

[Michał Sawicz]

Post by Alison Chaiken
I dislike the term "hobbyist." I propose that anyone asked such a
question call her/himself a "personal contributor" or "individual
contributor" to MeeGo. Without such enthusiastic individuals, our
efforts will fail. The passions of individuals are less subject to
management whim than the commitments of major corporations.

As far as community contributions go, Alison forgot to mention another
idea of hers, which was at meetings like our current one there should be
a bin for foreign power cords, chargers and any other gimmicks that we
don't / can't use. Everyone would be encouraged to take each and every
one that could come of use to them.

I'm all for. Shame it didn't happen this time.

[Alberto Mardegan]

Post by Alison Chaiken
Here's something that's been annoying me for a while and has really
gotten up my nose this week: people asking more or less, "Are you
employed to work on MeeGo and or are you just a hobbyist?" The
language is so belittling! Let us not forget that Linux was started
by a "hobbyist."
I dislike the term "hobbyist."

That's your problem, then. ;-)
I don't have anything against me being called a hobbyist on something I do on my
free time. The fact that something is produced out of a hobby doesn't mean that
it's poor quality.

Moreover, you also agree on saying that Linux was started by a hobbyist, so
where's the problem?

Ciao,
Alberto

[Bernd Stramm]

On Thu, 26 May 2011 11:20:07 +0300

Post by Alberto Mardegan

Post by Alison Chaiken
Here's something that's been annoying me for a while and has really
gotten up my nose this week: people asking more or less, "Are you
employed to work on MeeGo and or are you just a hobbyist?" The
language is so belittling! Let us not forget that Linux was
started by a "hobbyist."
I dislike the term "hobbyist."

That's your problem, then. ;-)
The fact that something is produced out of a
hobby doesn't mean that it's poor quality.

Very true, whether or not someone gets paid for doing certain work
does not tell you if they behave professionally.

Post by Alberto Mardegan
Moreover, you also agree on saying that Linux was started by a
hobbyist, so where's the problem?

The problem is that some people in the corporate world don't think
that work done voluntarily has the same quality as work done under
the direction (dictates?) of management. This is probably because
these people can't imagine that *any* work is done because people
want to do it.

So these folks need to be educated. The best quality engineering and
artistic output comes from people that are genuinely interested in what
they do. How they make a living has nothing to do with it.

[Dirk Hohndel]

Post by Bernd Stramm

Post by Alberto Mardegan
Moreover, you also agree on saying that Linux was started by a
hobbyist, so where's the problem?

The problem is that some people in the corporate world don't think
that work done voluntarily has the same quality as work done under
the direction (dictates?) of management. This is probably because
these people can't imagine that *any* work is done because people
want to do it.

I wonder about this statement. In companies that engage a lot with open
source I'd be very surprised to encounter this... so I wonder if this is
your /perception/ or if you have actualy confirmation that this is the
case?

Post by Bernd Stramm
So these folks need to be educated. The best quality engineering and
artistic output comes from people that are genuinely interested in what
they do. How they make a living has nothing to do with it.

Precisely. And I believe that is widely understood. No one at Intel
would dream of asking you whether you were paid to do your work in order
to judge whether your work is good. Actually, I know a few people in OTC
who might ask you that very question, but with the opposite intention
(i.e. "if you do this just because you are paid, then I wonder about the
quality of your work") :-)

I certainly am proud and happy when I'm called a hobbyist :-)

/D

[David Greaves]

Post by Dirk Hohndel
Precisely. And I believe that is widely understood. No one at Intel
would dream of asking you whether you were paid to do your work in
order to judge whether your work is good. Actually, I know a few
people in OTC who might ask you that very question, but with the
opposite intention (i.e. "if you do this just because you are paid,
then I wonder about the quality of your work") :-)
I certainly am proud and happy when I'm called a hobbyist :-)
people asking more or less, "Are you employed to work on MeeGo and or
are you just a hobbyist?" The language is so belittling!

I tend to agree with her. However I don't think it's the hobbyist label
per se; the label *is* used in a disparaging manner with exactly the
phrase she uses ... the key word that makes it disparaging is "just".

Intel people (especially OTC) may have a more progressive attitude but
lets not kid ourselves that this is the industry norm. We have to
recognise that the individual contributor is probably initially seen as
either a weakness or an irrelevance to most corporate drones. This isn't
likely to change much unless MeeGo (and the rest of the opensource
community) does work to ensure that we can communicate both the
relevance and value that hobbyists bring to the project.

Post by Dirk Hohndel
I dislike the term "hobbyist." I propose that anyone asked such a
question call her/himself a "personal contributor" or "individual
contributor" to MeeGo. Without such enthusiastic individuals, our
efforts will fail. The passions of individuals are less subject
to management whim than the commitments of major corporations.

Yep - so Alison, I vote for you to do a talk on this topic at the next
conference : "How my hobby is worth billions..." :)

David

[Sivan Greenberg]

That is precisely how I define myself! I always say "Community / Individual
contributor".

It is interesting how people are inclined to assume that you are paid by
someone to work on MeeGo...

-Sivan

Post by Alison Chaiken
Here's something that's been annoying me for a while and has really
gotten up my nose this week: people asking more or less, "Are you
employed to work on MeeGo and or are you just a hobbyist?" The
language is so belittling! Let us not forget that Linux was started
by a "hobbyist."
I dislike the term "hobbyist." I propose that anyone asked such a
question call her/himself a "personal contributor" or "individual
contributor" to MeeGo. Without such enthusiastic individuals, our
efforts will fail. The passions of individuals are less subject to
management whim than the commitments of major corporations.
--
Alison Chaiken
[phone] (cell)
http://www.exerciseforthereader.org/
A career in Silicon Valley is just like a chess game, only players can
move all the pieces every turn and some of the pawns bite.
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[Alberto Mardegan]

Post by Sivan Greenberg
That is precisely how I define myself! I always say "Community / Individual
contributor".
It is interesting how people are inclined to assume that you are paid by someone
to work on MeeGo...

To me it's not clear whether a "Community / Individual contributor" is paid or
unpaid.

Ciao,
Alberto

[Dirk Hohndel]

Post by Alberto Mardegan

Post by Sivan Greenberg
That is precisely how I define myself! I always say "Community / Individual
contributor".
It is interesting how people are inclined to assume that you are paid by someone
to work on MeeGo...

To me it's not clear whether a "Community / Individual contributor" is paid or
unpaid.

And to me it is unclear why that matters.

/D