This talk discusses the benefits a FOSS community or project gains from taking on a movement- or product-focused perspective.

A Free Software community or project can be seen as a movement, or as an organization which creates products.

From a product-focused perspective, a community or project is not defined by what its members want, but by what it creates, and what benefits that product brings to its users. A product is only worth creating if it brings value to a relevant group of users, and every aspect of it is measured by that criterion. A product-focused project makes sure that it collects actionable feedback from its users and keeps the quality and attractiveness of its product high.

From a movement perspective, several project groups together form a movement, which is defined by its overarching goal. The actions of every group are defined and measured by their contribution to that goal. The overarching goal is usually not realistically achievable, but it is what keeps the movement going. It is broken down into multiple, achievable short- and mid-term sub-goals. A movement-focused mindset makes sure that the different groups within a movement work together to achieve their common goal.

Both mindsets can bring benefits to a Free Software community: The movement-focused mindset keeps its motivation up and its actions coherent, whereas the product-focused mindset ensures that the product's quality and value to its users is not forgotten. Ideally, it should switch between both, depending on the question at hand.

Info

Day: 2016-09-04
Start time: 11:15
Duration: 00:10
Track: Community

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