FOSDEM over. Home again.

February 26, 2007 9:42 am Dave Neary General

Home again. Tired. Got in around midnight last night, and after giving the boys hugs (without waking them up) and unpacking, I got to bed around 1.

I think the “Why do we do it” talk was well received again – but I guess I will need some of the people who were there to comment on that. There’s a lot on how you actually get involved – I compare getting involved in a free software project to walking into a party and getting to know everyone.

If you expect people’s first contribution to be on the mailing list, that is roughly the equivalent of having people you don’t know sing kareoke as soon as they arrive at your party. So remember that the people on the other side of the ether are human beings, that we’re shy, can get our feelings hurt, and assume that the person you’re talking to doesn’t know our culture.

Since I’ve been travelling more, the thing more than anything else that I have noticed is the assumptions people make – the things which are self-evident in one culture, and which are completely strange in another. “Well, of course I don’t have to pay when I go to the doctor” would say a Frenchman. “It’s natural that you pay to get healthcare, and pay more to get better healthcare,” an American might say.

Our community has its culture and its assumptions too – sometimes just the fact of identifying them is enough to make people realise they’re not necessarily true.

And yes, I still think we’re working on free software because we are changing the world.

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