[Tfug] Pleasurable distraction

[John Gruenenfelder]

On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 01:24:35PM -0700, sitkaa at email.arizona.edu wrote:
>
>Looked through Sourceforge a while back and thought that it required 
>too high an
>entry level for to do anything useful. Maybe that isn't the case. It has got
>175,000 registered projects. Surely not all of these projects are completed.
>Perhaps most of these are just proposals?

SourceForge focuses on hosting open source projects.  I would take that to
mean that, at some level, a project will incorporate deeper understanding of
the target system.  Probably this means coding of some sort, but I would be
surprised if they turned down a project to, say, document some existing
application suite (in a way where this wouldn't be included directly with said
suite).

That said, SourceForge offers a fairly detailed management system that's
fairly easy to understand and use.  Project members can be assigned various
roles in the project indicating their focus and limiting what they can and
cannot do to the project.

As for the large number of projects hosted there, I'm fairly sure that most
have *something* to offer and are not just proposals.  Whether that something
is useful or complete is another story.

Back in 2000, I chose SourceForge to host my book reader software.  Over time
I had a number of people join the project, though generally in fairly limited
capacities.  Some contributed code, patches, and a helper app or two.  Others
joined as translators.  I know some of these translators had no coding
experience, but they were still useful and welcome to the project.

With such a small group I was able to make only limited use of SourceForge's
personnel management options; things such as granting access to code
repositories, ability to assign/manage bugs, etc.  I could certainly have
gotten by without these features, but it was nice to have.

So, on a properly structured project, there is no need for a project
manager/admin (the default role for the person who starts a project) to know
how to code.  But, to properly manage a project I'd say it's very important
for that person to at least know of the various parts and what they do.  A
non-coding manager is unlikely to check code out from CVS/Subversion, but he
had better know what it is even if he doesn't know how to use it.


-- 
--John Gruenenfelder    Research Assistant, UMass Amherst student
                        Systems Manager, MKS Imaging Technology, LLC.
Try Weasel Reader for PalmOS  --  http://weaselreader.org
"This is the most fun I've had without being drenched in the blood
of my enemies!"
        --Sam of Sam & Max