Mini intros round!
Briefly, into the core group: Open Source Design core team
Finished and updates on AP’s from the last meeting:
- DONE AP: Core team - Double check with Jan, open an issue to investigate if agreed: Issue was opened here: https://github.com/opensourcedesign/opensourcedesign.github.io/issues/359
- DONE AP: Eriol Post on the final deadline - logistics what happens afterwards with chosen ‘winner’
- Currently winning is the ‘internship’
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DONE AP: Eriol will start something (Discourse or a repo?) about papers/experiences of designers in OSS. → Eriol has started collecting papers in a notion page here for their PhD. They aren’t all about Designers exp in OSS but they are connected to design + OSS in some way. Eriol is going to move this to Github at some point but for now…Notion is a bit easier to populate a table
Not finished AP’s from the last meeting (SORRY):
- AP: Anyone Two wrap-up pieces of writing has been requested one that is about the processes and a second that is around metrics and some case studies of jobs that have or haven’t been filled. Rise up etherpad here
How to spend money
- Meeting with outreachy: Read the notes from the meeting here: Riseup Pad
- Conversations finances
- Conversations around mentoring
- We need to have a series of conversations and session on what internship/mentorships could look like and map our options well!
- We need to think about spending this not as a one time activity but as an ongoing process
- partner for where we provide mentors to help them I’m 100% onboard with Outreachy
- We happen to have a bit of money and are thinking about what to spend it on
- If we do it the other way around, like fundraise for something specific, we can have goals etc
- Just a thing to keep in mind regarding Outreachy: If we spend it on it, we basically donate it to an open source project, cause usually they need to front the money.
And another option in the poll is “Select jobs from jobs board to assign paid bounties to them for OSS designers to complete” – which as far as I remember we didnt really want to do - I think we also never tried raising money. So if we spend and say we want to spend if we raise money, maybe we will get the $6k quicker next time?
- maybe putting in the funding amount for something that grows the open source design community. not sure what could be those 1-2 aspects - branding, more community engagement, etc
- Big question: What do we generally want to do (if money is no object)?
Other mentoring programs of note
Choosing OSS projects to join → how to decide
- Jobs page is a good place to go
- Most OSS get a little defensive when they get contributions!
- Eriol’s paper recommendations: Paper Usability in OSS Alternate a web article Paper Gatekeeping
- Sometimes jobs get posted but they aren’t 'ready to hear what it really means
- A document of questions to ask to test how ready an org is would be useful. Susan (in a design community) wrote this doc for when you’re interviewing with design orgs
- Most OSS orgs are very happy to receive contributions.
- Good docs are a good signal. Especially if there’s a design specific docs
- Chat channels and platforms to discuss the tool and ask for help.
- No mention of anything user-related it’s probably not very ‘mature’
- Find a docs writer or a product person or a design-friendly person.
- I use the existence of documentation/a documentation group/discussion about documentation as a good proxy.
- Discussing ways to “how to document the crazy UI” they’re at least thinking about it.
- If 90% of the chat is about regex (or some tech-heavy language), even as a developer, I am going to get out of there
- I think my favourite advice was just talk to the maintainers.
- Having a good ‘first step’ into the OSS and figure out where the key areas to contribute is.
- Look at a roadmap and where the org is headed to make sure that your contributions are ‘useful’
- Some orgs don’t want contributors to be involved in the delivery pipe for important work due to bad impressions of how long contributors stay volunteering and how quickly they do work.
- Bernard explained his approach: Do desk research on a project, lurk on the chat rooms for about a week, then ask user-related questions, depending on how they respond they decide to stay or leave. Most of the time people want you to do that work, then you get the ‘ohh this is hard’
- Belén (another OSD member) says “open source is the slow food of software”. Inspired by ethnography - Research - Belén Pena
- Saptak S (he/him) says: Apart from the chats (like IRC, etc.), documentation, etc. I always think looking at the issue tracker is also a good place to get an idea how much keen they already are about design
- Who are the decision-makers in a project? find that out and engage. Talk to the right people.
Conferences!
- There is an open-source design panel at Drupal Con Europe!
Schedule | DrupalCon
Website OSD improvements and PR’s
- Re. new design for OSD: Saptak is looking into restructuring more, so gonna take some time for the implementation of designs to finish, but fully welcome any design help.
All the designs are by me based on some suggestions by Elio (another person from OSD), so I am sure needs lot of help. But everything is in penpot and open.