I believe that in order for libre software to serve the people, we need to make sure that the process is actually democratic. The voices of normal people has to be heard.

There is miniscule interest for libre software developers to listen to normal people. It is understandable. They invest their free time to create something and they have their own vision of what they want to develop. Developers may also be disinterested because there is too much that can go wrong.

I also think that normal people understand this and it has gotten to the point that nobody is even trying to give any feedback.

I believe the lack of enthusiasm is because there isn’t any arena for voicing these desires.

I believe what we are missing is an arena to cultivate the relationship between developers and people. Where people can voice what they want, generate attention for these desires and connecting people to developers.

My suggestion

I’m imagining a platform where a person can create a post voicing their desires. A person can give peer support to desiree where they argue why this would help them as well. Developers can propose a solution. A peer supporter can vote on this solution as interested/uninterested. A peer supporter can apply for mandate which desiree can grant. A person can propose software that already exist or are in development that will satisfy the desire. The desiree’s voting is highlighted.

If developer and mandates are satisfied with the response, they can proceed to the next step where they meet up in any format to get a thorough understanding of what the participants expectations are. If the participants agree, a post will be created associated with the original post with an official statement of what will happen. The mandates and the developer will sign the contract. This will notify all peer supporters. The rest of the project can happen independently from this arena.

  • Vegafjord eoOPM
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    23 years ago

    I’m sure I could have phrased some things a little better. Just wanted to get these thoughts out there.

  • @nutomicA
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    13 years ago

    Maybe something as simple as a forum where developers and users can discuss? Something like Lemmy? But there is definitely no need for a contract, no one will sign that just for doing volunteer work.

    • Vegafjord eoOPM
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      13 years ago

      The essence of this post is that I want a federated platform to track demand.

      The reason I think it would be good to have such a platform is because:

      1. It can measure how much demand there are for different types of software.
      2. Developers know this platform is a place to find crowd funded work.
      3. It is designed to connect people with developers.
  • @ramberry
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    1
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    deleted by creator

    • Vegafjord eoOPM
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      13 years ago

      This doesn’t appear to be about making the development of libre software more democratic. Rather, it looks like a solution to distribute responsibility in libre software development such that development becomes quicker and less prone to cancellation.

      It’s still a very interesting read though:)

  • Support Trans People
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    -63 years ago

    please be careful with the word “democratic” as it can have many meritocratic implications in the context of “free/libre” software. you can avoid misinterpretation by using “open source” instead of “free/libre”

    • Vegafjord eoOPM
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      33 years ago

      Could you elaborate? I don’t understand.

      • Support Trans People
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        -73 years ago
        • the word “democratic” can have meritocratic implications

        • meritocracy is racist

        it’s simple, avoid using the word “democratic”

        the point against “free/libre” is a bit more complex, read about it here