Brandon Philips - http://ifup.org

As my work at IBM on the genetic library comes to a close my attention is beginning to turn to life back in Corvallis and at Oregon State. And one of the most exciting things about heading back is my new job.

With the help of Dr. Timothy Budd, Alex Polvi and I are going to create the Open Source Education Lab at OSU. Now, why isn’t that a link? Because the OSEL is so hot and new that it doesn’t even have a website yet! (That will change soon)

But, in the mean time a “What” document for the OSEL was created (here) to give some hint at what we are aiming to do at the OSEL. And one of the first headings in this flyer reads: “It’s About Community”. The term community gets thrown around alot in the FOSS world and is arguably one of the most important aspects to creating good Free software. So, in this post I wanted to share some of my recent run ins with communities in and out of the software world.

At the Supermarket

Nisha, a friend from my NASA days, recently visited France with her Dad and sister. During her visit she told me about an attempt to go to the corner market to pick up some produce with their family-friend and host Etienne Uncle. When they got down to the market door it was shut and locked despite being a Tuesday afternoon. But, Etienne Uncle wasn’t suprised, he had simply forgotten that the family who runs the store was on vacation for the month.

My mind boggled- could you imagine this situation happening in the states? Etienne Uncle didn’t even vow never to shop there again!

But, then I started to reflect: The 8-5 grind of working life keeps me on a pretty regular schedule and for that reason I tend to hit up the supermarket at a pretty regular time two or three times a week. In doing so I have discovered that I see some of the same employees everyday when I come in.

Now, some nights I come in right at 9pm (it is too hot to run before 8pm) when the meat counter is closing. A few times the regular guy there, Mike, told me he was closed, so I thanked him and moved on. But, he started to notice my pattern and I started making an effort to come in before closing time. This worked out well and on most nights we would exchange a few words about the day and I would move on. Then, tonight I showed up at 9:05pm and Mike just smiled and laughed a bit, and so did I.

However, this time he didn’t say he was closed- he set down his mop, said hello, and asked if I needed anything. And to my suprise, despite showing up 5 minutes late I got the deli meat I needed and had a quick pleasant conversation too.

Then, at the checkout, the checker Sean noticed I was buying my new favorite drink: Naked Juice (stop laughing :-)). I had recommended it to him a few days ago after he asked about it- and he stopped his checking and thanked me for the recommendation.

These three anecdotes are about community- it isn’t anything magical- it is simply people who are empathetic to one another and who are willing at times to do a little extra for each other.

Communities Go Beyond Differences

Ananda, my officemate, gave me some insight into the way religions mix in India. He told me that in the city in which he grew up the population was a mix of people following Muslim, Hindu, and Christian faiths. But, he never saw or heard of animosity towards any group because of their faith; and in fact everyone lives and works side by side.

Maybe, he suggested, if people were to live in this city for a few months, they would see that intolerance is unnecessary.

Between Colleagues Beyond Companies

This summer I had the opportunity to visit the Ottawa Linux Symposium and after a bit of coaxing from Val Henson I went to a room party for file system developers. When I arrived I saw that there were people from big tech companies and universities sharing ideas, complaints, insights and critiques on file system development and the Linux Kernel. So, in the case of this community FOSS was the enabler.

A Company that is a Tribe

Over at Robert Paterson’s Weblog a great post was made about the web design firm Silver Orange and in particular their strive to maintain a small tribe of developers instead of growing a big company. For a company of this size they are quite successful and seem fully dedicated to maintaining a healthy tribal community:

We openly challenge each other all the time. I don’t mean that we fight but that we speak out minds about what each of us are doing. Peer review happens everyday and in all settings. To fit here you have to be able to be comfortable with giving and in receiving opinion about what is going on for real and what you are doing for real.

Conclusion

Communities are important for a few reasons:

• Develop empathy and friendships
• Build tolerance and comradery
• Bring smart people with a common interest together
• Enables productive work

It is the goal of the OSEL to encourage the growth of a thriving FOSS community on the OSU campus. And I think it is quite clear why this is a Good Thing™.

P.S. Don’t ignore the communities forming all around you when you are walking down the street with your earbuds a blaring. Visit Social Recession for more information.