|| vegetarian contributors musings ||
By VID on Sunday 5 October 2008, 15:12 - mithya - Permalink
What constitutes contribution in a Libre software project?
I had attended foss.in 2007 for the first time because LinuxChix-India had a BoF and most importantly to meet friends who were speakers and gave talks. I also attended talks on some topics which were of interest to me personally. This year, ever since the organisers have taken a "holier than thou", "show me the code (and only 'real code' counts)" route, there has been a lot of heated debate over this partisan attitude. Christian, your analysis is spot on, but here are some facts :
#1. This is not the *only* major Libre event in India.
- The organisers team at foss.in, for the most part, hardly changes and is never publicly elected, let alone publicly discussed. Its definitely unfair to compare it with other international conferences like Fossdem, Debconf, http://linux.conf.au/ and suchlike nor compare it with other Indian events mentioned below.
- Each year, Indians are treated to fossconf.in@Chennai, Freed.in@Delhi, mukt.in@Hyderabad (at which i spoke) and Gnunify@Pune, among the various local events held contiguously all over India. Its unfair to bill these events as any less since they are free, open and transparent. Besides, the biggest issue some of these events face is chasing sponsors before each event. Why? Well every big IT company out there, does not want to support small libre community events in India, a blinkered attitude IMHO.
Ideally every major IT firm _should_ be encouraging the smaller events to grow and creating variety by sponsoring freedom. This will reduce the pressure the volunteers undergo in worrying about 'funds', 'management', and suchlike. Another possibility is to hold a debconf or fossconf event in India but that is tough for a lot of reasons.
So why not sponsor {add project name here} speakers/participants for smaller events like gnunify, mukt.in and freed, which will increase interaction and participation in the local Indian community!!
#2. Contributions, Freedom and you.
- Secondly Christian, maybe the organisers goal is NOT to encourage more "Karolin, Ana, Miriam or Clytie to be part of Indian FLOSS game" but well, they are free to promote elitist arrogance, even if women's groups have been fighting against it all these years and succeeded just about to make libre software projects more inclusive and friendly.
- Most major projects encourage contributions such as localization, packaging and bug squashing which are important tasks in the evolution of a libre software project. Apparently _that_ is not good enough and foss.in wants to focus on people who code and only 'real' code while condemning bug testers, translators and such like which according to their definition are low hanging fruits (read un-important tasks?). Maybe the intention is generate more blue-blooded kernel code from India. Good for them.
Aditya Godbole summed it up quite well here among other folks who dared to raise their dissentive voices (but I feel lazy to scout for links on a Sunday afternoon). He is partly right, one ought to think if you really need a conference to prove oneself !?
The beauty of the Libre community is such that *you* get to decide how much
you want to contribute. Just as they are free to dismiss "low-hanging" fruits,
we are just as free to attend another conference which is truly free,
open and transparent. So if one wants to contribute please go
*directly* to the respective project and start whatever work you want to do
according to your time constraints and interest.
That said, I would respect those who respect me, my time and my contributions.
If someone thinks my contributions dont measure upto their blue-blooded
standards, its their choice, just as I can choose how I spend my 600 bucks this
year. Being a vegetarian, i dont eat omlette's, but fruits are very good for
health so join us and help us pick some low-hanging fruits, There's more... but I
guess you know your way around Libre software projects by now which is freedom
defined by you 
Comments
Let's see where to start? (PS: I'm speaking as myself here, and not representing any larger organisation)
> #1. This is not the *only* major Libre event in India.
I whole heartedly agree. FOSS.IN is one of many many many indian FOSS events. Many of these FOSS events have a completely different focus than FOSS.IN
> The organisers team at foss.in, for the most part, hardly changes and is never publicly elected, let alone publicly discussed.
Team FOSS.IN, like the head of other major FOSS projects is a meritocracy. I joined the team after I volunteered in 2005, and was asked to lead the volunteers team in subsequent years. If someone wanted to be on Team FOSS.IN, they should have proven themselves in some way. And in fact, that is how every member of the team was picked up.
> Its definitely unfair to compare it with other international conferences like Fossdem, Debconf, http://linux.conf.au/ and suchlike nor compare it with other Indian events mentioned below.
I'm really sorry you feel like that.
> they are free to promote elitist arrogance, even if women's groups have been fighting against it all these years and succeeded just about to make libre software projects more inclusive.
It isn't elitist arrogance. We are focusing on FOSS development efforts. There are enough and more events all over india focusing on translation and bug fixing and so on and so forth.
Every event, has a focus. That's what makes it a memorable event. The focus of FOSS.IN has been becoming narrower and narrower, as other events have been coming up.
In 2005, there were a large number of topics on various subjects. There were hardly any other (community) events to be seen.
In 2006, we ensured that all talks were only contributor talks (ie, by contributors). A few other events had started, and were doing well, my personal favorite being FOSS.NITC.
In 2007, FOSS.IN strictly had no talks that were not related to some FOSS project, and about getting involved (ie, there were no more "How to get FOSS in govt" and "How to get FOSS in education" talks). By this time, there were a stack of other community events, a few of which Team FOSS.IN offered to sponsor (as a silent sponsor)
In 2008, we have reached the stage where there are loads of community events out there, and FOSS.IN can focus on what it wants.
Does the indian public really need one more event on the same thing? It's quite simple. The whole year is saturated with events to increase contributions from the newbies (just two weeks ago, we had a small event at my college (PESIT) for "Software Freedom Day").
> Apparently _that_ is not good enough and foss.in wants to focus on people who code and only 'real' code while condemning bug testers, translators and such like which according to their definition are low hanging fruits (read un-important tasks?).
I think you, like so many other people, are missing the definition of (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/...) "Low Hanging Fruit"
> another conference which is truly free, open and transparent
I don't see how this is remotely true. Every single detail of this change has been explained in the various lists. Just because we made a decision you didn't like doesn't make us a closed and non-transparent conference.
> If someone thinks my contributions dont measure upto their blue-blooded standards, its their choice, just as I can choose how I spend my 600 bucks this year
I'm sorry that you feel this way. I'd encourage you to form another event, with another focus, if you feel that is appropriate.
Let me just warn you, from personal experience, that leading a volunteer team (which is exactly what FOSS.IN is) is a LOT of hard work. Often working sleepless nights on the CfP when you have an exam next day, and start studying for it at four in the morning.
Do you know why we do it? Because at the end of the day, we know that we ARE boosting the contributions from India. Last time we boosted the number of contributors. This time, we are boosting the volume.
-- Tejas Dinkar
I were really in a hurry to have a talk on CHDK for FOSS.In/08. For that I submitted my first patch and the developer had accepted it whole heartedly. He needs his time to check in the code for some other reasons. Somehow after reading the omelet post by Atul, I couldn't submit my paper. My intentions are clear, to spread the CHDK project where ever I go. Along with that, create as many contributors for this project, whether it be for translation and whether it be a *mere* bug fix or new features etc. Anyway my second patch is ready to be submitted. I had almost given up my presentation for FOSS.IN/08.
html is screwd up. I meet see http://fossmeet.in
@sujith : They use the term "real code" and maybe, just maybe, a patch is not considered equivalent to real code. BUT you would need to clarify it with foss.in organisers or the team that whets the cfp submissions. Being a private event its their call.
@anivar : ummm... html works fine for me. Do you mean the blog is not rendering properly?
Anyway vid, I am doing my work and am getting appreciation from the CHDK developers. Its for the firs time a developer as such had commented in my blog!!! I am enjoying my freedom with my code
What else should I want. For
me where ever I go, I will make it as an event 
I will spread the project to
the maximum I can. I think as a contributor, I am doing my best.
My patch is not a patch, just a patch. I had added a feature which was missing in the library
@tejas
>Let me just warn you, from personal experience, that leading a volunteer team (which is exactly what FOSS.IN is) is a LOT of hard work. Often working sleepless nights on the CfP when you have an exam next day, and start studying for it at four in the morning.
>Do you know why we do it? Because at the end of the day, we know that we ARE boosting the contributions from India. Last time we boosted the number of contributors. This time, we are boosting the volume.
Do you actually think Svaksha doesn't do any conferences or she doesn't know the effort involved in these things? Or is it that you think there is no other event where organizers go through sleepless nights?
Talking about having time to study at 4:00 am!
There are people who've given up exams to organise.
@krish: They apparently think only their effort matters and that other volunteers are somehow lesser denizens, maybe all round lazy even because they contribute 24x7x365 and not just hype the 5 days in a year. [/end tongue-in-cheek]
But if people like getting insulted after volunteering and dont mind being pushed around and want to pay and participate in a private event then they deserve what they get...that is freedom too dont you think ?!?