Re: Conducting Research on FOSS communities

[David Arroyo Menendez]

Thomas Ingram <taingram@mtu.edu> writes:

> On 11/12/18 1:23 PM, Drew Adams wrote:
>
> Note: “community” refers to the FOSS community and the GNU Emacs 
> community specifically.
>
> 1. Describe your role in this community.

I'm an advanced user and ocasional developer. I've contributed small
extensions to GNU Emacs, and contributed other scripts and books
translations to the community.

> 2. How long have you been a part of this community?
>

>From 2000

> 3. Why are you involved in this community?
>

I like the GNU philosophy and from my point of view. GNU Emacs is the
best software to understand it. In the beginning was because was a good
free software editor.

> 4. What would you say are the shared goals of your community? (Why does 
> this group exist? What does it do?)
>

The goals are shared because there are a license.

The emacs culture is shared, because we share the source.

> 5. What mechanisms do members use to communicate with each other? 
> (examples: meetings, email, text messages, newsletters, reports, 
> evaluation forms, handbook, etc)

Yes, I've used meetings, email, mailing list, books, telegram, ...

> 6. What are the purposes of each of these mechanisms of communication?
>

The answer is obvious. Meetings to find people in a physical place,
mailing list to comunicate to many people in an asynchonous, irc to
share ideas in a synchronous way, etc.

> 7. How do new members learn about the mechanisms of communication and 
> how to use them?
>

In general, a newbie learns GNU/Emacs using Emacs. Although you can read
the Emacs Manual, or receiving a class.

> 8. Are there any shared texts or mechanisms for communication that you 
> think are not working well? What do you see as the problem?
>

All is ok

> 9. What are some examples of specialized language that the group members 
> use in their conversation and written communication? (examples: 
> acronyms, slang, specialized terms that “outsiders” might not understand)
>

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Glossary

> 10. How do you help new members learn the specialized language of the 
> community?
>

There are many ways depending the person and my motivation.

>
> Hopefully that helps clarify what I'll be asking about.
>
>
> Thomas Ingram
> Michigan Technological University
> Computer Science

Thomas, I've a little article about my experience with emacs-es in
spanish. If you are interested I can attach you.

Regards