Community Perspective Discussion

This page frames the discussion for how members of various FOSS/HFOSS communities view new contributors as well as how the growth of a newbie into a full contributor is accomplished.

1. How important is it to attract new contributors?
   • What is the motivation for attracting newbies?
     • What is the motivation for attracting students?
   • What percentage of effort is spent on attracting newbies?
   • What is the impact on project future?
2. How do projects attract new contributors?
   • What is it about a project that draws new users? Domain? Technology? Community?
     • Does this differ for students?
   • What techniques have been successful for drawing new contributors?
   • What challenges do you face in attracting new contributors?
3. What are the onramps for your project?
   • Have you developed learning activities or resources to help in on-ramp?
     • This might be as simple as a brief tour of the project site pointing out features for potential contributors
   • What would be useful as an onramp?
     • Is this something students could build? Bootstrap participation?
4. How do projects retain contributors?
   • What techniques have been successful for retaining contributors?
     • Would these need modification for students?
   • How do you guide contributors towards increasing value to the project?
     • How successful have you been with this?
5. What skills/knowledge should a potential contributor have?
   • Where do you suggest newbies start?
   • What role do you hope that new contributors play in your project?
   • What is the minimum set of knowledge/skills contributors need to get started?
     • This could be technical or soft skills.
   • What kinds of contributions work best for new contributors?
   • What kinds of contributions are most likely to be accepted by the project?
   • What more advanced knowledge is valuable?
   • How do you convey the need for more advanced knowledge? How do you "grow" newbies?
   • What are the biggest learning curve issues for newbies?
   • Do you use different approaches/techniques for newbies versus people that appear to have some background?
6. What advice would you give instructors on how to approach and work with a project?
   • What should instructors do to ensure interactions with students are a positive for the community?
   • What is the right way for instructors to approach a project in order to ensure successful interactions?
   • What should instructors do to ensure successful interactions over time?
   • How can instructors give back to the community?
7. How can foss2serve bridge the gap between education and HFOSS projects?
   • How can we make student participation work better for all concerned?
8. What else?
   • What other aspects have we not considered?