Needed?? The Suggestion Box??

[James Richard Tyrer]

http://osnews.com/story.php?news_id=9933

<< I am not asking the OSS developers to implement every little thing 
that's asked out there, I am asking them to simply take users into 
account and get an idea of what the whole of their user base needs. >>

I don't know the answers, but I have seen the problem for a while.

As I see it the measure of excellence in software is how well it meets 
the needs of the users.

AJS seems to feel that such a statement is "bitching on the Internet":

http://aseigo.blogspot.com/

Monday, March 14, 2005

<< so all you disgruntled users: scratch your itch. come up with some 
sort of system that works for you and invite the developers to it. make 
it inviting. make it worth our while and your while. you're the only 
ones who know what you want. so hack the system to get it.>>

Well, according to classic behavioral psychology, what we need to do is 
change the contingencies of reinforcement.  But, as I see it, the 
current system has the developers reinforcing themselves.  I don't see 
that paying developers, as has been suggested, is the answer.  In a way, 
AJS is correct, a change of culture is what is needed.  I come from a 
different culture -- the engineering culture rather than the hacker 
culture -- and I find meeting the needs of the users by making a better 
product to be reinforcing.

-- 
JRT