Submitted by mutlu (not verified) on February 1, 2009 - 19:55.
Well, I think two things are of importance here. First, F/OSS is only partly part of the market economy, not all rules of marketing apply (or, rather, other rules apply as well). There is a loose community of people of identify with KDE (and also Qt). They read the planet, maybe lurk on mailing lists, try svn or beat versions and report bugs. They comment on ideas developers put forth and are - even though they are not developers themselves - somewhat part of this 'imagined community.' Celebration of a great release like 4.2 is something that appeals to both these users and developers and I believe that getting them together once in a while is something wonderful that does not usually happen in a society structured by the market economy (there are, however local coops, etc.), but something that makes an open community 'live' in a more general sense (not unlike Benedict Anderson's idea of imagined communities).
Second, given that a project like KDE is developed by developers, not users, it is important to attract people to participate (which there are many ways of). If is nice that KDE has gained millions of users in Brazil, for example, and in the long run this will lead to people from there become involved with KDE development, but ultimately, what sustains any F/OSS project is continued development. There is always a 'churn' in projects, which are bound to lose developers due to various events in the course of life. Thus, frequent and good communication on blogs and mailing lists will let people know about what's going on and want to help out if a technology seems well designed and promises to become mature any time soon. Thus, the issue of releases in linked to this as well, they can attract contributors. Another thing, and this is what this long post is about, is that the kind of users I was talking about before are usually technically skilled, have some programming knowledge, and could potentially contribute much more. Thus, such meetings might allow for these users to identify even more closely with the project as well as lose their fear to approach it in person and help out.
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re:I've always wondered what
Well, I think two things are of importance here. First, F/OSS is only partly part of the market economy, not all rules of marketing apply (or, rather, other rules apply as well). There is a loose community of people of identify with KDE (and also Qt). They read the planet, maybe lurk on mailing lists, try svn or beat versions and report bugs. They comment on ideas developers put forth and are - even though they are not developers themselves - somewhat part of this 'imagined community.' Celebration of a great release like 4.2 is something that appeals to both these users and developers and I believe that getting them together once in a while is something wonderful that does not usually happen in a society structured by the market economy (there are, however local coops, etc.), but something that makes an open community 'live' in a more general sense (not unlike Benedict Anderson's idea of imagined communities).
Second, given that a project like KDE is developed by developers, not users, it is important to attract people to participate (which there are many ways of). If is nice that KDE has gained millions of users in Brazil, for example, and in the long run this will lead to people from there become involved with KDE development, but ultimately, what sustains any F/OSS project is continued development. There is always a 'churn' in projects, which are bound to lose developers due to various events in the course of life. Thus, frequent and good communication on blogs and mailing lists will let people know about what's going on and want to help out if a technology seems well designed and promises to become mature any time soon. Thus, the issue of releases in linked to this as well, they can attract contributors. Another thing, and this is what this long post is about, is that the kind of users I was talking about before are usually technically skilled, have some programming knowledge, and could potentially contribute much more. Thus, such meetings might allow for these users to identify even more closely with the project as well as lose their fear to approach it in person and help out.