A demonstration of Nadia Eghbal's argument about the participatory nature of software and open source software at scale
This quick exercise is designed to demonstrate the load on Maintainers from participatory open source.
Exercise
Pretend that you use the software component called Super Acme Software. It's not important what the software does, it's just important for this exercise that you use it a lot, and that lots of people around the world use it too. It's a critical component in many cyber-physical systems in use in several application domains. Again, the key thing isn't what it does, but that there is a heavy dependence on it.
Choose one of the sub-scenarios to follow below:
- Imagine you have found a bug in the software and want to get the bug fixed.
- Click on Issues.
- Most open source repositories have an Issue Template to structure bug reports effectively. Do you like using the Issue Template? It's totally up to you whether you use it or not. Provide as much or as little information about the bug as you like.
- If a maintainer responds to your Issue, consider engaging with them. What if they won't fix your bug?
- (If you're comfortable with GitHub), imagine you are a software developer with a change you would like to submit as a contribution so that it counts towards Hacktoberfest.
- Fork this repo, make a change and create a Pull Request
- Pretend you don't know much about the Super Acme Software codebase, you just want the t-shirt! t-shirt!!!11!!!!
- Choose whether you use the Pull Request template or not. Do you like using the PR Template? Provide as much or as little information about the PR as you like.
- If the maintainer responds to your PR, consider engaging with them. What if they don't accept your PR?
Acknowledgements