[Year 12 IPM] More info from a real virtual team

Sat Dec 16 20:30:23 EST 2006

Thank you Mark - this is solid gold!
I always thirst for reality for the kids - they appreciate it so much.
Also it is good to have them exposed to this view of opensource in
contrast to commercial. Of course, presenting this 'conversation' via
the virtual-teams-theme adds depth to their understanding.
thank you!
Keith

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 09:44:03 +1100, "Mark Kelly"
<kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au> said:
> Another member of the OpenTTD.org virtual team has written to give his 
> insights into working on a software project with people from all over 
> the world.  Keep in mind that this team is made up of volunteers.
> 
> ---
> 
> Darkvater wrote:
> 
>  >> What problems arise from working virtually rather than face to face?
>  >> How do you get around these problems?
>  >> What conflicts arise, and how are they handled?
> 
> 
>  > The biggest problem we face from this virtual group is the lack of
>  > control. You cannot demand things from any developer, calling to them
>  > to fix this, or fix that, or else! This is also due to the voluntary
>  > nature of the project.
>  > Another source of conflict is, and has been the language barriers.
>  > There have been some very heated and at times even angry discussion,
>  > or let's say flamewars that turned out to be someone misinterpreting
>  > the other person due to the lack of proper english skills.
>  >
>  >> What benefits are there to working virtually?
> 
>  > I do not think working virtually would have any benefits, only
>  > drawbacks. You lose control, cannot confront people, they can simply
>  > ignore you, etc. etc. all things that when working in a group are
>  > unheard of. However for open source projects, especially smaller ones,
>  > I think this is the only viable development option. With members all
>  > over the world, just doing it for fun, in their free time it is
>  > impossible to come together physically and discuss problems, roadmap,
>  > etc.
>  > There is only one advantage for working virtually: the biggest minds,
>  > the most interested people can come together to work on the project.
>  > This makes development very enthusiastic and sometimes some really
>  > great people show up out of nothing with brilliant ideas, patches and
>  > coding skills. I think achieving this, for open source without pay,
>  > would be impossible physically. Development over the internet is the
>  > only viable way imho.
>  >
>  >> What's your preferred communication method. Why?
> 
>  > Since we have developers from all over the world, in different time
>  > zones we are only left with email, forums or IRC. We use irc for
>  > instant communication and feedback. This is done in our public channel
>  > where everyone can participate in the discussion. At times this is
>  > annoying, yes but we believe in the open model. The more minds think
>  > about a certain topic, the better ideas one can get. The forums over
>  > at www.tt-forums.net are mainly used for long(er)-term developments,
>  > ideas. Email is almost never used. About 90% of the communication thus
>  > happens on IRC with the rest being split over the forums and some
>  > private messages at times.
>  >
>  >> How are tasks allocated?
> 
>  > Things in OpenTTD are not exactly organized. Most of the time the
>  > person that started a certain feature gets allocated all the bugs,
>  > features, etc. related to that feature. Most of the time this works.
>  > This does lead to specialization, which is not per se bad, just when
>  > the said person leaves, the others have to rediscover that part of the
>  > code again. I therefore try to press onto everybody to comment their
>  > code appropriately so it is understandable without a deep internal
>  > knowledge of the specific part.
>  > When we are nearing a release, as we are now for 0.5 I usually make up
>  > a list of bugs that ought to be fixed, and a list of features, before
>  > I give the green light for the release. It is mostly up to the other
>  > developers to pick items from the list, but I also assign (or better
>  > said ask them if they would be interested in fixing it) some bugs to
>  > developers.
>  >
>  >> Hope you can help. The IT kids in Victoria, Australia would
>  >> appreciate it!
> 
>  > You are welcome, watch out for the fires! :)
>  > Hope I made some sense, if you have further questions, don't hesitate 
> to reply.
>  >
>  > Best regards,
> 
> -- 
> Mark Kelly
> Manager - Information Systems
> McKinnon Secondary College
> McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria Australia
> Phone +613 95780844  Fax +613 95789253
> webmaster:   http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
> IPM Mailing List Moderator
> IPM notes:   http://vceit.com
> 
> The future in IT is the next 30 seconds -- long-term planning is an hour 
> and a half.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Mark Kelly
> Manager - Information Systems
> McKinnon Secondary College
> McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria Australia
> Phone +613 95780844  Fax +613 95789253
> webmaster:   http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
> IPM Mailing List Moderator
> IPM notes:   http://vceit.com
> 
> The future in IT is the next 30 seconds -- long-term planning is an hour 
> and a half.
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
> IPM Mailing List kindly supported by
> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment
> Authority and
> http://www.vitta.org.au  - VITTA Victorian Information Technology
> Teachers Association Inc
Keith Richardson
ITA List Moderator
Head of ICT, Leibler Yavneh College
Elsternwick
Ph: 03.9528.4911
k.richardson at yavneh.vic.edu.au