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What Are You Doing In Front Of Your Computer All Day?
This is a question I hear way too often from my flat mates, friends and family. Most of the time, a conversation that started with such a question goes something like:
<someone> What are you doing in front of your computer all day? <me> Hmmmmm, I'm working ... kind of. <someone> All the time? <me> Not all the time, but well, probably most of it. <someone> Aren't you chatting or stuff like that? <me> Yep, but that's not the type of chatting you're used to I guess. <someone> What are you working on?
Now the conversation reached a point where you can either terminate it by saying something that just pops into your mind, like you're preparing something for work tomorrow (most people I met aren't interested enough in the job I have to ask further questions) or you get yourself prepared to explain:
- FOSS to someone who has absolutely never heard about it
- what the whole story really means to you
- and why you're participating (which way ever)
or simply that you're trying to make your NAS drive playing music, while being remote controlled via bluetooth from your cell phone (chances to terminate a conversation with this answer are actually quite good).
Regardles of which of the above options you choose, you'll have a hard time to explain something that most people (at least the ones I met) can't accept as being rational.
<me> Well, there's this Open Source project, called foo I am helping a little bit here and there. <someone> What is Open Source? <me> Hmmmm, well ... [skipping stuff about available source code, licenses, the M$ example of closed sources and so forth]. <someone> Aaaaaha (I haven't really understood 75% of what you've just said but). <someone> Are you or the others getting paid for what you do? <me> Actually, nope, there are exceptions of course. <me> However, chances are that someone maybe donates a few bucks. <someone> That doesn't make any sense at all, why are you doing this?
This is the hardest part of the story. At least for me. In fact, I have to answer the “Why am I doing this question?” (apart of the fact that Open Source makes sense) from time to time for myself to keep me on track and motivated.
Fun
I am an hobbyist. I have fun exploring new things. I'm self taught. Even though I've never studied computer science or the like, I am quite interested in programming and managed to develop I think at least average programming skills in some programming languages (yes, I make/made mistakes and like probably everyone else I am still learning). Some people I've met fail to understand why learning programming could be fun in any possible way, but to me it's just that, fun.
People
The other thing that drives me are the people. To me, Open Source also means meeting (not necessarily in real life) a lot of new interesting people (with far superiour coding skills 
). Often these people happen to share the same sense of humour or other interests and you can have a good time hanging around in IRC/forums (though that as well depends on the community).
Reward
And last not least, there's this warm feeling you get once you've accomplished something. When I think back to the day my first patch was merged upstream my heart still beats a little faster and it's still a great moment when that happens nowadays. I am really not addicted to the whole thing, though some would probably guess so by the time I spent in front of my computer, but I'd surely miss quite a lot if all that would be gone one day (though I can't think of how that could possibly happen other than by going blind or loosing my hands).
What about you? Why are you contributing to Open Source projects (or maybe you've even started your own)? What are your motivations?
Comments
2
It's sometimes hard to explain it, even to people that are using open source tools. On the other hand, the whole concept of open source/free culture/copyleft is so alien to people who've been brainwashed into believing that only money motivates people to do anything that it's hardly possible to actually explain to them what's going on there. They just consider it to be dumb (even while using Firefox ;) )
2008/05/29 07:57
3
Thankfully, most of the people I usually meet understand the concept of open source and even might have experienced one or another "Progasm" – this is probably one of the advantages of working at a university in the computer science department. And if all fails, I usually try with the LEGO analogy (“You remember building LEGO? That was fun, wasn't it? Now imagine building some giant functional LEGO thingy, that even was of use for someone, and you could build together with other people. Wouldn't that be great?”). Of course, that's where I get the funny looks… but that's ok
I think I participate in FOSS mostly to the same reasons… Biggest part being fun while learning new stuff and “getting stuff done” and the community (what would I do without #dokuwiki on freenode? 
), and a tiny bit of “fame and fortune” with my CV in mind – I gotta eat too .
4
I can totally relate to how programming is fun, creative and rewarding, even when you don't it for free and when you're not a professional. I learned php, css/xhtml etc to work with a small not-for-profit team of passionate folks who every year work hard to prepare the campagne francophone for the playing pleasure of 400 simulation enthusiasts. It felt great to think that I contributed in a small way, and overcoming the coding difficulties made me feel good :)
2008/05/29 13:15
Agreed on most counts.
I usually just tell people “I do linux stuff” because explaining would take too long. If people want to know more, they'll ask something like “What does that mean?”.
Regarding the “People” section, I think that's one thing that is hard to explain to laymen. That “there are others like me, doing the same stuff”. It's mind boggling to a lot of people that there are hundreds of people doing this for no reason except to do it. Architecture analogies (used a lot in CS) fall short here.