I was liveblogging Session 2 of the “How We Communicate” session at Blogher ‘08 (Why Bloggers–Even Non-Programmers–Benefit from Participating in Open Source Projects), when tragedy struck. Two minutes before the session ended, I lost my wireless connection as Wordpress was doing an autosave, and everything disappeared. Everything. This has never happened to me before–of course, the one time people are counting on me to live blog…

Anyway, I’ve reconstructed the session as best as I could. Here’s the description from the official BlogHer agenda:

Open source projects are a source of opportunity. Skill development, networking, career opportunities, confidence-building…you name it. A lot of us don’t really know how these projects work, and we don’t really know whether there’s a way for us to participate if we’re not actual code jockeys. This session will evangelize getting involved, at some level, with the one or more of the many open source projects out there. Join Technetra CEO, Alolita Sharma, Freebase community director Kirrily Robert and Mozilla.org’s Chief Lizard Wrangler Mitchell Baker for this practical, and hopefully inspiring, session.

The facilitators opened the session by asking attendees what comes to mind when they think of open source. Answers from the attendees included transparency, collaboration, coding, cooperation, technology, programming, and developers. Mitchell provided a basic definition of open source: it’s a way of writing software collaboratively, as a community effort, wherein anyone can use the application for any purpose free of charge. The facilitators highlighted openness, transparency, decentralization, and meritocracy as important values in the open source community, and explained that open source applications are all around us. Google, Apache, Linux, Mozilla,WordPress, and Drupal (which BlogHer uses for its website) are all open source programs.

Major themes from the session included the following:

• Don’t be afraid of the code. Kirrily stressed that anyone can learn to code. If you’ve ever made a tweak to your Wordpress template, if you’ve ever used HTML on your blog, if you’ve ever used CSS or Java, you’re a programmer. Anyone can learn to write code. Even the most dedicated programmer probably got his or her start by making tweaks to a program that someone else wrote. Play around with the code for your website (be sure to save a backup first) and see how you like it. Again, don’t fear the code!
• Keep in mind that “geek-speak” is different. Bloggers (especially women) tend to be excellent at tactful communication. Alolita noted that, when suggesting a change to a piece of code, women might be likely to say “I think it would be great if we tried…” whereas a programmer or developer might tend to say “Do this” or “That won’t work” or “We already tried that–check the archives”. Some women or newer open source contributors may be offended or intimidated by this style of communication, but it’s important to bear in mind that–for the most part–the intent is not to be rude. There are many user and developer groups targeted at women, and they may offer a more comfortable environment for those new to open source.
• “Buyer” beware. Open source software is free and available to anyone to use however they like. Attendees wondered how to evaluate the value and quality of an open source application before downloading it. Kirrily suggested googling the program. If it has millions of hits, it’s probably a good application. If there are only two pages of links, beware. You can also look for reviews of programs at linuxjournal.com, at slashdot.org (although Kirrily and Mitchell aren’t fans of slashdot), and on technical blogs. Mitchell warned that not all open source applications are good–be sure to do your homework!
• Finding new applications. There is no one single directory of open source programs, so it can be difficult to track down exactly what you’re looking for. The best way to find open source applications is to use google to search for them. Linuxjournal and freshmeat.net both have large directories of open source applications. You can also post questions in user forums and request recommendations from the open source community.
• Update wisely. Attendees wondered how often open source software needs to be updated. Mitchell observed that Mozilla issues updates very frequently. She advised that you look at the version number before downloading an update–an update from version 2.5.2 to 2.5.3 will likely be a minor security patch. (You can read the description of the update to find out exactly what it contains.) However, an update from 2.5.2 to 2.6 or 3.0 will include substantial changes and could affect any coding you’ve already implemented on your website. For those types of updates, Mitchell recommends that you follow the user groups and see how the “early adopters” are doing with the update before proceeding.
• Find your niche. You don’t have to be a developer to be involved in open source. Open source programmers are typcially very focused on writing code, but there’s more to open source than code. The open source community also needs input from graphic designers, from users and others who can assist in refining the user interface and improving the consumer experience, and from marketing specialiasts who can spread the word about the application. Join distribution lists, participate in IRC channels, and do some research to find out where and how you can best contribute.
• Find a project that matters. All three facilitators stressed the importance of selecting an open source project that you care about. If you blog using WordPress and are very interested in having access to new plugins, themes, and widgets, focus on those applications. If you don’t care about what you’re doing, you’ll lose interest and won’t enjoy the experience.
• Start at the edges and work your way in. For larger projects (like Mozilla or WordPress), you’ll have a much harder time trying to get started at the “core” of the program. You’ll have a much better chance of having a positive community experience and actually getting your changes accepted into the program if you start around the “edges” of the project. For example, if you want to get involved in the WordPress open source community, it would be best to start with writing a new theme or plugin than suggesting a change to the actual WordPress platform.

The facilitators see a number of commonalities between bloggers and the open source community in terms of openness, transparency, community, and self-reliance (having control of one’s own data and not being locked in to a particular application or software). They encourage bloggers to experiment with programming and become involved in open source to enrich the blogging experience and empower themselves to use the technologies that run our websites.

Tags: BlogHer 08

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