From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Jean Louis Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Conducting Research on FOSS communities Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2018 03:41:29 +0100 Organization: GOLDIVANTI GOLD LIMITED Message-ID: <20181128024129.GT22109@protected.rcdrun.com> References: <29ee14d8-d640-fec5-2ae7-f93b600bda65@mtu.edu> <153503a2-985d-034a-ddea-23110760bbe5@mtu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1543372834 9670 195.159.176.226 (28 Nov 2018 02:40:34 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2018 02:40:34 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Mutt/1.10.1 (2018-07-13) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: Thomas Ingram Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Nov 28 03:40:30 2018 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1gRpm9-0002RO-OG for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 28 Nov 2018 03:40:29 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:45554 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gRpoG-0007D3-AZ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 27 Nov 2018 21:42:40 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:53563) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gRpnk-0007Cf-Ns for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 27 Nov 2018 21:42:09 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gRpng-00025n-Ez for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 27 Nov 2018 21:42:08 -0500 Original-Received: from stw1.rcdrun.com ([217.170.207.13]:35623) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gRpng-0001sD-7a for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 27 Nov 2018 21:42:04 -0500 Original-Received: from protected.rcdrun.com ([::ffff:31.223.149.32]) (AUTH: PLAIN admin, TLS: TLS1.2,256bits,ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384) by stw1.rcdrun.com with ESMTPSA; Tue, 27 Nov 2018 19:41:30 -0700 id 000000000002070C.000000005BFE005B.00004B6A Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) (uid 1001) by protected.rcdrun.com with local id 00000000000C8716.000000005BFE0059.00004283; Wed, 28 Nov 2018 03:41:29 +0100 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <153503a2-985d-034a-ddea-23110760bbe5@mtu.edu> X-Mime-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by courier 0.76.3 X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] [fuzzy] X-Received-From: 217.170.207.13 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:118780 Archived-At: Dear Thomas, FOSS is not same as free software.=20 Free Software is the original movement, so to learn more about it, read: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html Open Source is not free software, it is quite different movement supporting more the vendors rather than users. Open source software need not be necessarily free software in terms of liberty. You may see here a list of non-free software licenses: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#NonFreeSoftwareLicenses and many of those non-free software licenses are issued for "open source" which is very vague term. For th eFOSS term, I don't know who invented that but is also misleading because the context "free and open source" may refer to "charge" and not liberty as intended. GNU Emacs is written by Richard Stallman initially as free software.=20 In general free software supporters are working together with "open source" community, both are supporting each other in practice. Let me answer questions from my side. On Mon, Nov 12, 2018 at 04:03:44PM -0500, Thomas Ingram wrote: >=20 > On 11/12/18 1:23 PM, Drew Adams wrote: > > "Willing to answer some questions" can depend on the > > questions. Maybe you can post the questions somewhere > > and ask people to get in touch with you if they want > > to participate? >=20 > Yes, good point, I can provide you with the approved questions: >=20 > Note: =E2=80=9Ccommunity=E2=80=9D refers to the FOSS community and the = GNU Emacs community > specifically. GNU Emacs community is not FOSS community, it is not the same. The Free Software Foundation may have its members list. Mailing list may have its members. Yet it is open for everybody to write to the list without being a member. There are in general no definite members lists and nobody asks who is who, because we help each other, but GNU Emacs lists on GNU.org is definitely not an FOSS community, yet it does not mean anybody supporting FOSS would be excluded from participating ever. In fact it is not looked upon.=20 Please read the article: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html.en and also note that Emacs is hosted on GNU.org website: http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ > 1. Describe your role in this community. Just an active GNU Emacs user supporting others to use free software. > 2. How long have you been a part of this > community? Since I know Emacs, since 1999. > 3. Why are you involved in this community? I am supporter of free software, help others solve problems, and find solutions for myself. > 4. What would you say are the shared goals of your community? (Why does = this > group exist? What does it do?) It was formed by Free Software Foundation https://www.fsf.org to gather and help users to use free software, such as GNU Emacs. There are many other mailing lists here: http://lists.gnu.org/ > 5. What mechanisms do members use to communicate with each other? (exam= ples: > meetings, email, text messages, newsletters, reports, evaluation forms, > handbook, etc) That is email mailing list. There are also newsletters with announcements, also sent to mailing list. There are handbooks on GNU Emacs, and there is IRC channel #emacs just as you can see various support channels on GNU Emacs website. > 6. What are the purposes of each of these > mechanisms of communication? To advance free software. Each member may have its own individual purpose. > 7. How do new members learn about the mechanisms of communication and h= ow to > use them? In regards to GNU Emacs they learn it from the website http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ and http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/documentation.html and from the Help menu within the software and www.gnu.org website, YouTube videos and many other places. > 8. Are there any shared texts or mechanisms for > communication that you think are not working > well? What do you see as the problem? This mailing list is self-evidencing truth that it works, if it works well or not is very subjective opinion.=20 > 9. What are some examples of specialized language that the group member= s use > in their conversation and written communication? (examples: acronyms, s= lang, > specialized terms that =E2=80=9Coutsiders=E2=80=9D might not > understand) You may start with GNU -- meaning GNU is Not Unix, the name of operating system, and GNU Emacs is part of it. https://www.gnu.org and there is plethora of other terms. > 10. How do you help new members learn the specialized language of the > community? Through the Help menu in GNU Emacs software and websites. Jean Louis