Opening Up Open Source
Chris Coldewey, 24 Feb 05
Aspiration Tech and Blue Oxen Associates (mentioned previously on WC) recently brought software developers and usability experts together for a three day conference to improve open source software designed for non-profits and activists. The FLOSS Usability Sprint got a whole lot of people together working on projects like ActivistMobilizationPlatform, CivicSpace, and OpenACS, and was just held Feb.18-20 in San Francisco. Anyone who was there want to comment?
Chris -- did only see this now.
The wiki for the floss usability sprint is here:
http://www.flossusability.org/wiki.pl?FrontPage
Noteworthy results coming out of the sprint: A new-found sense that the different cultures and communities of usability professionals and open source developers might just be able to talk and interact with each other successfully and productively; a desire to have more sprints for additional projects in other parts of the country; and a host of resources on the event wiki, including the beginnings of a manifesto "Usability Considered Useful" which can be found here: http://www.flossusability.org/wiki.pl?UsabilityConsideredUseful
We'll be discussing the next sprint/event series soon and will be looking for f/oss projects to put in the usability hopper... We are, of course, especially interested in those propjects that have applicability for civil society organizations. Suggestions are welcome at info@flossusability.org!
Posted by: Katrin on 1 Mar 05
