Open Elements

I just got done watching Sarah Ford’s Lessons from OSCON: The Power Toys Team Learns How To Go “Open” presentation on Port25.

In her discussion, she brings up that there are 2 types of users in the open source community. There are active users who get involved in the community in one way or another, and there are passive users. “Passive users simply add +1 to your download counter.”

This last comment really struck a cord with me, because as much I hate to admit, I don’t participate much with online communities. I am a passive user.

Of course, this is a journey into open source for me, which means that I get to learn from my mistakes, so going forward, I’m going to try to increase my involvement with open source communities; this also includes commenting on other peoples blogs whenever I see something of value or potential.

My aim is to be part of the open source community and also to give back to it.