"hacking the social system"

[Nathan Olberding]

I think we're starting to split semantic hairs here. Maybe it's worth
asking who contributors are, how they contribute, and why? Why not
take a poll? I'd be a much bigger contributor if I had the time. I
know there are contributors whose job description is to develop for
KDE. Some are students. The list could go on forever. If we're going
to start talking about who we are, lets either figure out for
ourselves who we are or reference previous works that determine who we
are, rather than taking more of an armchair approach.

For that matter, can someone restate the goals of this thread?

2005/5/4, James Richard Tyrer <tyrerj at acm.org>:
> Jesse Haubrich wrote:
> > <snip>
> >
> >> I believe that B. F. Skinner would strongly disagree with you.
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > Skinner studied mice, not developers.
> 
> Is there a difference? :-)
> 
> > I wonder how his results would have varied had he been only able to
> > acquire cats. ;-) Additionally, any developer who is motivated by
> > praise can contact me directly. I'm willing to trade some heavy back
> > patting for CPA work and household chores. :-P
> 
> I believe that his point is that operant conditioning works on all
> species.  And, yes I have found that his methods work on cats.  So,
> developers are also motivated by positive reinforcement.
> 
> > I don't know, maybe I'm socially maladjusted. Growing up, my sisters
> > always got praised for doing the *expected* thing. The most I ever
> > got was a red bottom; which is a small price to pay for fun. ;)
> >
> > ESR has an article, "The Hacker Primer" where he relates developers
> > with the anthropological idea of a "gift culture."  A gift culture,
> > as he describes it, is society where status is gained based on how
> > much a person gives.  This is a strong argument for the reason that
> > status is something that people strive for and are motivated by (esp.
> > here in the states).
> 
> The question is whether the current contingencies of reinforcement for
> developers are external or internal -- are developers conditioned by the
> positive reinforcement of others or is it self reinforcement.
> 
> > I dug up this article that I stumbled on a few weeks ago. Its a brief
> >  comparison of the motivation of traditional volunteer work versus
> > Open Source.
> >
> > http://merrillassociates.net/topic/2004/04
> 
> The blog uses the terms Altruism & Egoism but these are the same
> concepts (external & internal reinforcement).  I believe that it is
> correct that Egoism ("self-satisfaction") is the primary means of
> positive reinforcement in OSS.  But, we should not assume that the
> contingencies of reinforcement for self-reinforcement are the same for
> all developers, or that the current contingencies are the optimum.  One
> of the points that I try to make is that for me -- coming from the
> engineering culture -- that these contingencies are different than they
> appear to be in the Hacker culture.
> 
> <<
> The Open Source community is a great example of a facilitated
> environment. There is a free-flow exchange of ideas and products within
> the community. There is the challenge of creating a better
> product/service. There are opportunities for both individual and team
> creativity and innovation. There is the opportunity to share in common
> vision with like-minded people. There is an environment in which
> volunteers can work as equal partners with some of the best and
> brightest in the field. There are opportunities for dialogue and
> community. Though much of the activity takes place as part of a vast
> online community, many local communities have monthly face-to-face
> meetings, creating technical support groups and open source communities
> that foster the exchange of knowledge and opportunities to build skills
> and connections.
>  >>
> 
> How well does the KDE community conform to this description?  Or, do I
> see it differently because I am on the outside looking in?  But, if it
> _is_ Open, should anybody be stuck on the outside?
> 
> IAC, I feel that the self-reinforcement contingencies in the Engineering
> culture are probably more optimum than the current ones in parts of the
> KDE culture.  It is possible that this can be ameliorated by some
> external reinforcement.
> 
> --
> JRT
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-NKO-