An easy trap to fall into is believing in the fable that one is a “community expert“. Such a person is mostly self attested and hence that title is easily obtained. Underlying this idea is of course the arrogance that one knows what the community is all about. If community is an oft (mis)used word, “expanding the community” would perhaps vie for the position of the second most used phrase in recent times. With the proliferation of FOSS projects and the opening up of various kinds of “resource centers” and “centers of excellence”, expanding the community is becoming the mantra which gets chanted at every moment.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

I wrote a bit earlier about why the focus should be on working within the community and not just trying over-the-wall contributions and claiming expansion of community. This time I’d like to talk about “resource centers”.

The primary focus of a resource center for Free and Open Source Software would be to invest in people. Thus, not working on expanding the community or increasing the quantum of contributions. Those are end results of a structured and disciplined process that should be putting people first. The keyword here is “resource”. To that effect, it has to plan, provide and play host to people and allow itself to be used as an infrastructure bedrock. So, the next immediate focus area becomes infrastructure. Putting up the required infrastructure that allows potential contributors and existing community members to collect together and share knowledge. The eventual outcome of this would be presence. The resource center should have a presence across various existing collectives where like minded people gather and promote itself as a gracious host. In short, the resource center has to figure out it’s own 3 circles.

The unsaid assumption here is that the person leading and directing the resource center has to limit the role to that of a facilitator (or, even a project janitor) and use the familiarity with upstream FOSS activities to drive contributions upstream alongside creating new projects that are locally relevant. Not allowing one’s own dogmas and beliefs to overshadow the focus of the center is a really good quality to have along with putting in place a project management and process framework that ensures that the quality of code that gets produced is of the highest one.

But what usually happens is best called general bedlam and mayhem. Instead of a focus on people, an undue amount of emphasis is put on presence. An excitement about development areas that are unrelated to the central objective takes over the idea of investing in infrastructure. In place of a clear, transparent means of community communication what comes out is a muddled messaging that aims for “world domination” before putting house in order. Over and above all this is the presence of a clique or cabal who keep on deluding themselves and others that all is right and things are going according to plan. Well of course they are, point is that given that there wasn’t a plan to begin with, any direction the path takes is according to plan.

The sad outcome is that a potential is lost and nothing ever gets done. Frankly, it isn’t right for a body that has the words national prefixed to resource center for free and open source software to lose its way this badly. It isn’t right that the oversight committee lets it happen.  And it is a crying shame that all those who care for FOSS in India can’t come up with an alternative arrangement or body that doesn’t have the problems the current body is riddled with.