Conducting Research on FOSS communities

[Thomas Ingram]

Hello,

This isn't quite the usual question, so I hope I am asking this in the
correct place.

I am writing a research paper for my University's Advanced Composition
course on discourse communities in free & open source software and I am
looking for people willing to answer a few interview questions about the
subject. I am reaching out to the GNU Emacs community specifically as I
use Emacs everyday and it is perhaps the oldest free software community.

So if anyone who considers themselves a part of Emacs community would be
willing to answer some questions, let me know!


Thomas Ingram

Michigan Technological University

Computer Science

[Drew Adams]

Post by Thomas Ingram
So if anyone who considers themselves a part of Emacs
community would be willing to answer some questions,
let me know!

"Willing to answer some questions" can depend on the
questions. Maybe you can post the questions somewhere
and ask people to get in touch with you if they want
to participate?

[Van L]

Post by Drew Adams
"Willing to answer some questions" can depend on the
questions.

Maybe a lawyer ought to vet the answer
before the response is sent, too.

[Thomas Ingram]

Post by Drew Adams
"Willing to answer some questions" can depend on the
questions. Maybe you can post the questions somewhere
and ask people to get in touch with you if they want
to participate?

Yes, good point, I can provide you with the approved questions:

Note: “community” refers to the FOSS community and the GNU Emacs
community specifically.

1. Describe your role in this community.

2. How long have you been a part of this community?

3. Why are you involved in this community?

4. What would you say are the shared goals of your community? (Why does
this group exist? What does it do?)

5. What mechanisms do members use to communicate with each other?
(examples: meetings, email, text messages, newsletters, reports,
evaluation forms, handbook, etc)

6. What are the purposes of each of these mechanisms of communication?

7. How do new members learn about the mechanisms of communication and
how to use them?

8. Are there any shared texts or mechanisms for communication that you
think are not working well? What do you see as the problem?

9. What are some examples of specialized language that the group members
use in their conversation and written communication? (examples:
acronyms, slang, specialized terms that “outsiders” might not understand)

10. How do you help new members learn the specialized language of the
community?


Hopefully that helps clarify what I'll be asking about.


Thomas Ingram
Michigan Technological University
Computer Science

[Jean Louis]

Dear Thomas,

FOSS is not same as free software.

Free Software is the original movement, so to
learn more about it, read:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

Open Source is not free software, it is quite
different movement supporting more the vendors
rather than users. Open source software need not
be necessarily free software in terms of liberty.

You may see here a list of non-free software
licenses:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#NonFreeSoftwareLicenses

and many of those non-free software licenses are
issued for "open source" which is very vague term.

For th eFOSS term, I don't know who invented that
but is also misleading because the context "free
and open source" may refer to "charge" and not
liberty as intended.

GNU Emacs is written by Richard Stallman initially
as free software.

In general free software supporters are working
together with "open source" community, both are
supporting each other in practice.

Let me answer questions from my side.

Post by Drew Adams
"Willing to answer some questions" can depend on the
questions. Maybe you can post the questions somewhere
and ask people to get in touch with you if they want
to participate?

Note: “community” refers to the FOSS community and the GNU Emacs community
specifically.

GNU Emacs community is not FOSS community, it is
not the same.

The Free Software Foundation may have its members
list.

Mailing list may have its members. Yet it is open
for everybody to write to the list without being a
member.

There are in general no definite members lists and
nobody asks who is who, because we help each
other, but GNU Emacs lists on GNU.org is
definitely not an FOSS community, yet it does not
mean anybody supporting FOSS would be excluded
from participating ever. In fact it is not looked
upon.

Please read the article:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html.en

and also note that Emacs is hosted on GNU.org
website:
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/

1. Describe your role in this community.

Just an active GNU Emacs user supporting others to
use free software.

2. How long have you been a part of this
community?

Since I know Emacs, since 1999.

3. Why are you involved in this community?

I am supporter of free software, help others solve
problems, and find solutions for myself.

4. What would you say are the shared goals of your community? (Why does this
group exist? What does it do?)

It was formed by Free Software Foundation
https://www.fsf.org to gather and help users to
use free software, such as GNU Emacs. There are
many other mailing lists here:
http://lists.gnu.org/

meetings, email, text messages, newsletters, reports, evaluation forms,
handbook, etc)

That is email mailing list. There are also
newsletters with announcements, also sent to
mailing list. There are handbooks on GNU Emacs,
and there is IRC channel #emacs just as you can
see various support channels on GNU Emacs website.

6. What are the purposes of each of these
mechanisms of communication?

To advance free software. Each member may have its
own individual purpose.

7. How do new members learn about the mechanisms of communication and how to
use them?

In regards to GNU Emacs they learn it from the
website http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ and
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/documentation.html
and from the Help menu within the software and
www.gnu.org website, YouTube videos and many other
places.

8. Are there any shared texts or mechanisms for
communication that you think are not working
well? What do you see as the problem?

This mailing list is self-evidencing truth that it
works, if it works well or not is very subjective
opinion.

9. What are some examples of specialized language that the group members use
in their conversation and written communication? (examples: acronyms, slang,
specialized terms that “outsiders” might not
understand)

You may start with GNU -- meaning GNU is Not Unix,
the name of operating system, and GNU Emacs is
part of it. https://www.gnu.org and there is
plethora of other terms.

10. How do you help new members learn the specialized language of the
community?

Through the Help menu in GNU Emacs software and
websites.

Jean Louis

[David Arroyo Menendez]

Post by Thomas Ingram
Hello,
This isn't quite the usual question, so I hope I am asking this in the
correct place.
I am writing a research paper for my University's Advanced Composition
course on discourse communities in free & open source software and I am
looking for people willing to answer a few interview questions about the
subject. I am reaching out to the GNU Emacs community specifically as I
use Emacs everyday and it is perhaps the oldest free software community.
So if anyone who considers themselves a part of Emacs community would be
willing to answer some questions, let me know!
Thomas Ingram
Michigan Technological University
Computer Science

Hello Thomas,

I'm doing a Phd with Jesús G. Barahona, who is expert measuring floss
comunities from a quantitative point of view. Perhaps you can find
useful these tools: https://chaoss.github.io/grimoirelab-tutorial/perceval/intro.html

Regards.

[David Arroyo Menendez]

Post by Thomas Ingram
Note: “community” refers to the FOSS community and the GNU Emacs
community specifically.
1. Describe your role in this community.

I'm an advanced user and ocasional developer. I've contributed small
extensions to GNU Emacs, and contributed other scripts and books
translations to the community.

Post by Thomas Ingram
2. How long have you been a part of this community?

From 2000

Post by Thomas Ingram
3. Why are you involved in this community?

I like the GNU philosophy and from my point of view. GNU Emacs is the
best software to understand it. In the beginning was because was a good
free software editor.

Post by Thomas Ingram
4. What would you say are the shared goals of your community? (Why does
this group exist? What does it do?)

The goals are shared because there are a license.

The emacs culture is shared, because we share the source.

Post by Thomas Ingram
5. What mechanisms do members use to communicate with each other?
(examples: meetings, email, text messages, newsletters, reports,
evaluation forms, handbook, etc)

Yes, I've used meetings, email, mailing list, books, telegram, ...

Post by Thomas Ingram
6. What are the purposes of each of these mechanisms of communication?

The answer is obvious. Meetings to find people in a physical place,
mailing list to comunicate to many people in an asynchonous, irc to
share ideas in a synchronous way, etc.

Post by Thomas Ingram
7. How do new members learn about the mechanisms of communication and
how to use them?

In general, a newbie learns GNU/Emacs using Emacs. Although you can read
the Emacs Manual, or receiving a class.

Post by Thomas Ingram
8. Are there any shared texts or mechanisms for communication that you
think are not working well? What do you see as the problem?

All is ok

Post by Thomas Ingram
9. What are some examples of specialized language that the group members
acronyms, slang, specialized terms that “outsiders” might not understand)

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Glossary

Post by Thomas Ingram
10. How do you help new members learn the specialized language of the
community?

There are many ways depending the person and my motivation.

Post by Thomas Ingram
Hopefully that helps clarify what I'll be asking about.
Thomas Ingram
Michigan Technological University
Computer Science

Thomas, I've a little article about my experience with emacs-es in
spanish. If you are interested I can attach you.

Regards