Good people here; I have known several for years.
Welcome to Source Tree Commons
SourceTree Commons is the next generation platform for supporting open source software development. We're more than a code repository. We're building a community to support open source collaboration, and here's just a bit of what makes us different....
Our Pledge
Open source software is a geek's gift to the world.
Gerry, Can you give us a plain English version of what Source Tree offers? Who should be interested? Why? Geeks only, or others should participate?
I meant to say something here already, but am not sure where to start. We are at a pre-launch stage and actively recruiting early adoptors. That means you have to put up with working with sub-obtimal tools until we can build an infrastructure.
I will be back and say more about all of it. We are adding content to the site daily to address your question as well.
Posted by: Gerry | July 21, 2007 at 02:39 PM
For geeks mostly?
Posted by: Phil | July 21, 2007 at 02:41 PM
Moreso now than as things get going. We want to provide space for planning projects, and ways others can help like testing and documentation.
The most important work we are doing is outside of coding, making for a community that is collaborating on Open Source software projects. Large chunks of this work is coding, but there are equal amounts of other tasks.
Targetted currencies to measure contributions of all types in quantity and quality will be an essential part of the community tools. We will have to address project management task directly as well.
Posted by: Gerry | July 21, 2007 at 04:29 PM
What kind of non-geek partners would be a mutual fit?
Posted by: Phil | July 21, 2007 at 04:58 PM
The way I would think about it is that we intend to build some core infrastructure for open systems of all sorts, therefore an organization or institution that wants to support and build open source philanthropy (for example) would be an excellent partner. We will build it anyway, but it gets done a lot faster with very modest amounts of money.
Over the last week and a half we have discussed a number of models for sponsorship-like contributions. For example we want to support some sort of *bounty* system where someone could fully specify conditions of satisfaction for a software project of component and technical teams might compete and collaborate to satisfy the conditions and collect the bounty. The code is then available for the sponsor's project as well as to the rest of the community (the Commons) to build further projects on.
Better would be a foundation that as in Jeremy's speculative post that would work closely with us to the point of sustainability which would likely come pretty quickly.
Another model is an organization deploying open source software that wants to 1) get more bang for the buck 2) extend the reach of limited technical staff and/or 3) produce code and infrastructure that is more integrated from a design, operational and use standpoint. By having their own employees work as participants in STC, they can work with teams larger than their own group of people to complete projects that they will immediately put to use in their organizations. If they do this a lot, their people could also rise in reputation in STC and have a greater influence on the speed and direction of many related projects.
Perhaps I should say a little about our participation model and the levels of participation we have distinguished. You will be able to browse and download without any login, or get a login and become a member. At a basic threshold of participation, a member can elect to become a contributor and be able to participate fully as an STC citizen. At a higher threshold of participation and contribution to community building there will be stewards of the community who take a pledge to serve the community and participate in the emergent self-governance of the community.
Posted by: Gerry | July 21, 2007 at 08:51 PM
Thank the Lord for Geeks and the Geek code of honor. Wish it would spread to all walks of life.
Posted by: Phil | July 21, 2007 at 10:59 PM
You should have gotten an email newsletter. Feel free to unsubscribe, but it shouldn't be a high volume list.
Posted by: Gerry | July 21, 2007 at 11:45 PM
Don't recall getting it. I will look for it.
Posted by: Phil | July 22, 2007 at 12:08 AM