Hi Darius,

Thanks for sharing. These are worthwhile thoughts to consider in the context
of open source projects in general. Of course I don't have a concise answer
to the questions posed but a tad more "user" vs. "developer" orientation is
(I think) very helpful for any open source project. This is actually one of
the reasons why I really like Squeakland - it keeps you honest in the face
of truly naive users who don't know anything about why things are as
weird/complex/irritating as they sometimes seem to be.

Again, thanks for sharing this interesting memo,
  - Andreas

> -----Original Message-----
> From: squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org 
> [mailto:squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On 
> Behalf Of Darius Clarke
> Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 2:43 AM
> To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
> Subject: Jon Udell's observation on a weakness of Open Source projects
> 
> 
> http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/06/22.html#a730
> 
> Engines, steering wheels, and open source
> 
> "... Creative programming is a deeply addictive behavior...." 
> 
> "What open source projects often lack is not the engine, but the
> steering wheel.... Paul Everitt, co-founder of Zope 
> Corporation, puts it
> this way: "We suck at finishing work." Writing documentation doesn't
> make endorphins flow. Neither does organizing a usability study, or
> doing triage on bug reports, or writing a bulletproof installer, or
> internationalizing a product for fourteen languages, or creating an
> intuitive user interface.... "
> 
> "The SpamBayes engine is open source software that could be integrated
> with any email program. Most open source folk wouldn't want 
> to actually
> do that integration. But Mark Hammond saw it as an interesting
> challenge. He did the finishing work: packaging up the Python
> distribution needed to run SpamBayes and the plug-in, writing the
> user-interface code that enables the plug-in to work with my Outlook
> filters and folders, and delivering the whole thing as a clickable
> installer."
> 
> "I once asked a pair of open source wizards if they were 
> inspired by the
> thought that their software could improve the lives of millions of
> people. Nope. "We build infrastructure for other developers," 
> they said.
> "If they use it to make software that makes people happy, 
> then fine, but
> it's not what motivates us." 
> 
> Some of this the Squeak community does well. Some not so well, such as
> an intuitive user interface.
> 
> Cheers,
> Darius
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