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Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 21:02:53 +0100
Subject: Re: Of One-man Efforts and the like
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From: Bertrand Delacretaz <bdelacretaz@apache.org>
To: dev@cocoon.apache.org
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Le Vendredi, 20 f=E9v 2004, =E0 20:19 Europe/Zurich, Hunsberger, Peter a=20=

=E9crit :
> ...Now, exactly, how you go about building a community is another=20
> question.
> But, it seems that perhaps some of the Cocoon project members might be
> willing to help?..

After starting an Open-Source project myself (jfor, see the story [1]),=20=

which for several reasons failed to attract a community of developers,=20=

and later joining the very healthy Cocoon community,  I'm still=20
wondering what it takes to build a community.

I think it has a lot to do with the kind of project: with Cocoon, being=20=

targeted to developers, it's way easier to build a community of=20
developers than with projects targeted to end users (and also,=20
obviously, once the project reaches a certain level of recognition it=20
is even easier).

Users will come, use your stuff, maybe complain a bit or praise a bit,=20=

some of them might help a bit on the mailing lists but it's usually=20
very little compared to the number of downloads.

Developers will come, use your stuff and find that they can improve it=20=

with the same tools and skills that they need to use it, and get better=20=

at their craft in doing it. This makes it much easier to contribute=20
than if you have to learn a different skill set for contributing than=20
the one needed to use the software.

Rather than "improve it" I should say "extend it" - improving in the=20
sense of fixing bugs does not give you as much "fame" as contributing a=20=

completely new thing. This is also an important factor IMO.

Jisp might be somewhere in the middle, as developers can use it as a=20
black box without knowing much about how it works. And contributions to=20=

Jisp, as I understand it, would be more in the area of "improve it"=20
rather than "extend it".

Anyway it's not easy, and until a project reaches a critical mass it=20
needs lots of investment, in time, effort and money (as you have to eat=20=

in the meantime), and as with all investments one can get out of steam=20=

at some point, it's very understandable.

My 2 cents!

-Bertrand

[1] http://codeconsult.ch/bertrand/archives/000068.html