Social Sourcing Free Software:
The story of GetPaid and creating
new opportunities for Plone
Christopher Johnson
ifPeople | www.ifpeople.net
Plone Conference 2007
Napoli, Italy
October 9, 2007

Outline
What is Social Sourcing?
●
Why is it important for Free Software?
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The Story of GetPaid & Social Sourcing
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Lessons for Plone
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What is Social Sourcing?
Def 1: Open Source Software for Civil
Society Organizations (ie NGO/non-
profit)

What is Social Sourcing?
Def. 2: An organizing approach that
gets diverse stakeholders to
participate to the software making
process.

Similar Process: Charrette
Charrettes bring together people from
●
multiple perspectives at the design stage for
an intense collaboration.
Root: French for “cart”
–
More than just “crunch time”, it is also core to an
–
Integrated Design Process

Charrette
Frequently used for: innovative building
●
design, community planning, product design.
Key: collaborative decision making in design
–

Data Center Charrette
People from hardware, software, security,
●
energy, real estate and more
Resulting design:
–
89% energy use reduction
●
Equivalent computing power
●
Increased reliability
●
See rmi.org
–

Why is this relevant?
Open Source Software projects are
●
driven by developers
==> Developers, like architects, often
reticent to get “human” input
==> Difficult for non-developers to
participate in shaping outcome

Why is this relevant?
Diverse perspectives enrich the product
●
==> Expectations from client clarified
upfront
==> Opportunities and constraints explored
fully

Why is this relevant?
The quality of the process determines
●
the quality of the outcome
==> How you get it done determines
what you get done
==> Position product to have a strong
community

Plone:
●
Flexible + very useful out of the box
–
Internationally...
●
Wide use in NGOs, though still dependent on
–
third-party systems for donations
2006 PloneConf BOF
●
Conclusion: Need state of the art payment
–
processing framework

To action! But...
●
/me was new to community, not a developer, and
–
with no ecommerce software experience.
“Social sourcing” helped to be transparent,
–
inclusive, and improve the product.
<DOCTYPE FREESOFTWARE PUBLIC...>
●
<div id=”entrepreneur”>
...don't be afraid!

Step 1: Get oriented
●
What is already out there?
–
What do we know about those things?
–
Why do we need something else?
–
Result:
●
Reference on Plone Commerce:
–
http://plonegetpaid.com/why/plone-commerce-backgro
Need for the product:
–
http://plonegetpaid.com/why/need-for-this-product

Step 2: Make a plan
●
What should we do?
–
How can we do it?
–
Who does it benefit and how?
–
Make it pretty to look at...
–
Results:
●
Goal for GetPaid M1: Donation handling
–
Sponsorship plan:
–
www.plonegetpaid.com/sponsor

Step 3: Recruit leaders and participants
●
The project needs a qualified “sheperd”
–
Variety of expertise are needed
–
Result:
●
Lead architect: Kapil Thangavelu
–
Organizer: Christopher Johnson
–
NGO Liason: Jon Stahl
–
Developers and UI: various (see Credits)
–

Step 4: Refine the requirements
●
(participative)
Get input of users, developers, user interface
–
experts, consultants/supporters
Results:
●
Architecture outline
–
User stories
–

Step 5: Ask for money!
●
If you don't ask, you won't get it...
–
Tips for asking:
–
Connect needs with value
●
Be transparent
●
Be patient and persistent
●
Result:
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Raised over US$12,000 to date
–
Contributions page
–

Step 5: Don't forget...
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Be accountable and transparent
–

Step 6: Celebrate successes!
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Reward and recognize people and their
–
contributions
Communication is important!
–
Results:
●
Blog, mailing list
–
Celebrations...
–

Ongoing:
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Make it fun!
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Keep it organized!
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Keep people motivated!
–
Results:
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3 Sprints (UNC, Google, Argentina)
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Google Code (wiki, issues)
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Blog, mailing lists, channel (#getpaid)
–

Social Source v1.0 Alpha
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Study the market (benchmark)
–
Put together a compelling plan
–
Recruit the right people
–
Engage a wide base in refining requirements
–
Ask for money
–
Celebrate successes
–
Sustain it: fun, organization, motivation
–
Regroup, review, and restart...
–

What does this mean for Plone?
Plone is great!
●
Lots of work heading into the future...but
●
towards what?
Perhaps Plone could benefit from process
–
improvements that would:
Clarify direction and identity
●
Provide more inclusive design process
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Improve the overall product
●
Strengthen Plone community
●

Plone Creation Process
Overall vision:
●
Open process associated with vision?
–
How can users be more involved?
●
Place to document it?
–
Features:
●
PLIPs process determines features...but you
–
have to be a “core developer” to make a PLIP
Something before PLIPs but more specific than vision?
●
Way to involve non-developers?
●

Reminder
Check out GetPaid at Naples Sprint!
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Sprint for the Red Ocher Release Candidate
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October 13-15, 2007
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Thank you!
Contact info:
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Christopher Johnson
–
cjj (at) ifpeople.net
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www.ifpeople.net
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Links:
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www.plonegetpaid.com
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plone.org
–