the ecclesiastes principle: learning lessons of the past
DESCRIPTION
We in the technology world often feel that what we're doing is *so* new, we don't have anything to learn from those who went before. And yet, wherever we look, we catch glimpses of wisdom learned in the past which can be applied to open source software development. Dave presents examples from three areas: city planning, architecture and diplomacy, and shows how they apply to the open source world.TRANSCRIPT
The Ecclesiastes principle
Learning the lessonsof the past
Dave Neary, Red [email protected] / @nearyd
Ecclesiastes 1:9What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
The Great Frontier
3 examples
ArchitectureCity planning
Diplomacy
Community intimacy gradient
● Public: Forum, public mailing list, ...● Semi-public: IRC, blog comments, ...● Semi-private: Moderated mailing list,
invitation-only IRC channel, BOFs/meet-ups, ...
● Private: Private email, phone, face to face
MixedUses
Professional Amateur
The projects that have been the most successful... are good at all sorts of “soft skills”
David Eaves
Harvard Negotiation Project
● Founded in 1970s● Been used in international peace negotiations,
business negotiations, ...
A typical “negotiation”
I'll give you 40 for it
40? It cost me more! I'll give it to
you for 70.
You're joking! I'll give you 50, not
a penny more! You're a good customer, I could go to 60,
not a penny lessI can go to 53,
but that's all the cash I have with me
Negotiation overview
Interests
Options
Legitimacy
Discussionspace
Relationship Communication
Negotiations in Open Source
● Mailing list discussions● Bug report closed as “Not a bug” and reopened● Patch review● Feature priority● Conflict resolution
Photo credits:Slide 1: CC by-sa 2.0 by doratagold on FlickrSlide 3: Public domainSlides 6-8: “A Pattern Language”, Alexander et alSlide 12: “The Death and Life if Great American Cities”, JacobsSlide 13: CC by-sa 3.0 by revizionist on WikipediaSlide 15: Public domainSlide 16: CC by 2.0. Pencil by taylor.a on flickr, Cassette by victoradrianramia on flickrSlide 18: © David Eaves
Thank you!