Tuesday, 24 July 2012

baked byMatthew Weier O'Phinney

Open source software requires effort.

Many times, I’ve encountered individuals with fantastic ideas. However, when pressed for code or more detail, I’ll get the answer, “I don’t have time right now.” And yet, the expectation is that somebody will take that idea and run with it.

A few times, I’ve taken up such challenges—and in almost all cases I’ve regretted it, because once implemented, the person with the original idea will come back and say it doesn’t match their expectations. In the world of open source, such criticism is often very public, and generally damaging to the projects and people behind them.

So now, my mantra is: an idea does not have merit unless there is effort behind it: effort to provide a detailed explanation of how you envision it, effort to provide a prototype detailing the idea, effort to test the work others have done to implement your idea. Anybody can spit out ideas, but it takes effort to make those ideas a reality, and that effort should be valuable enough to warrant effort on your part as well.