Lessons from Three Feature Deployments in a Stewarded Open Source Project
MCLD 2002 | Sun 09 Aug 11:45 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Presented by
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Matthew Gaughan
https://mgaughan.net/
Matt Gaughan studies the rules and procedures that FLOSS contributors use to work together. He is a PhD candidate at Northwestern, where he draws from a variety of academic disciplines to look at FLOSS collaboration. He contributes to a few FLOSS projects in his free time and loves to build software that collects and organizes data. This will be his fourth FOSSY --- his favorite part of the conference is the hallway track, where he gets to hang out and learn from the conference community! He currently lives in Chicago, where he loves swimming in Lake Michigan.
Matthew Gaughan
https://mgaughan.net/
Matt Gaughan studies the rules and procedures that FLOSS contributors use to work together. He is a PhD candidate at Northwestern, where he draws from a variety of academic disciplines to look at FLOSS collaboration. He contributes to a few FLOSS projects in his free time and loves to build software that collects and organizes data. This will be his fourth FOSSY --- his favorite part of the conference is the hallway track, where he gets to hang out and learn from the conference community! He currently lives in Chicago, where he loves swimming in Lake Michigan.
Abstract
FOSS project stewards are increasingly responsible for technical development, maintenance, and project organization. The result are increasingly professionalized, centralized projects, where paid steward-affiliates drive project development while external contributors merely try to get involved. This is troubling for independent FOSS contributors, who provide critical labor despite often being pushed to the margins. How can independent contributors make their voice heard in stewarded project development? How can stewards organize project procedures for more harmonious collaboration? In this talk, I offer takeaways and findings from studying three feature deployments in MediaWiki, the wiki framework stewarded by the Wikimedia Foundation.
FOSS project stewards are increasingly responsible for technical development, maintenance, and project organization. The result are increasingly professionalized, centralized projects, where paid steward-affiliates drive project development while external contributors merely try to get involved. This is troubling for independent FOSS contributors, who provide critical labor despite often being pushed to the margins. How can independent contributors make their voice heard in stewarded project development? How can stewards organize project procedures for more harmonious collaboration? In this talk, I offer takeaways and findings from studying three feature deployments in MediaWiki, the wiki framework stewarded by the Wikimedia Foundation.