
Does open source exclude high context cultures? - darkduck
http://stormyscorner.com/2011/09/does-open-source-exclude-high-context-cultures.html
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pwim
_So if you start a project and send email to a bunch of folks and ask them to
just jump in and contribute, which group do you think will get going more
quickly?_

This article is predicated on the premise that most open source projects
actively recruit strangers to work on them. This has not been the case for any
open source projects that I have worked on. Instead, I normally address my own
needs by contributing to open source. I assume most others first participate
in a similar manner, so I think the article is built on a faulty premise.

~~~
fhars
Your answer is predicated on the premise that all possible contributors to
open source projects are comfortable with the habits and processes of a low
context culture just like you are. If anything, your example strengthens the
argument of the article, you are comfortable walking up to someone you have
never been introduced to wearing weird clothes, ah, sorry, writing code that
doesn't do what you want and tell them how to change it.

It is exaclty the point of the article that open source projects are more
attractive to people like you and that people who don't behave like that have
a harder time joining.

~~~
kragen
There's a difference between fixing a bug because it's getting in your way and
helping somebody out with their project. Fixing a bug in code you're running
on your own computer is not like walking up to someone and criticizing their
clothes. It's like sewing up a hole in your own clothes.

Of course, the actual action of fixing the bug is the same in both cases. It's
just a difference in how you see it.

For cases like that — where someone makes a change to some open-source
software for their own purposes, not in order to help out the project — the
question is not how to "recruit" them, but how to make sure that they can make
those changes easily, and then how to induce them to share the changes.
Stormy's point about different cultures needing different approaches still
holds in that case, but they'll be _different_ different approaches.

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eykanal
Good post. Having just started reading Duncan Watt's "Everything is Obvious"
(<http://amzn.com/0385531680>) critique on common sense, this looks like
exactly what he's talking about... people who aren't familiar with the
difference between the cultures (like me) don't even realize there is a
distinction, and hence won't realize that there's even a problem. Even if the
problem isn't that big, as some of the comments on the blog suggest, it's
still good to know that the distinction exists.

~~~
nu23
Thanks for the recommendation, I just started reading the book and really
liked the initial parts. The author has a very good discussion of how a result
in sociolgy is obvious, and it's opposite is equally obvious which leads
people to undervalue the findings in studies.

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Hyena
The original title is misleading. The actual thrust of the article is "are you
soliciting help in a way which encourages participation by people from HCCs?"
That's certainly something to think about, but it's a very different question
from whether open source itself excludes them.

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wisty
I don't believe cultures are intrinsically high or low context. The English
only became a culture that valued process and communication because it
_works_. Victorian England was all about who you know being more important
that what you know. The brutal reality that family can be a ball and chain,
and that corrupt officials helping out their friends and family is a detriment
to society took a while to set in.

China and India are dirt poor. Japan and Korea were dirt poor a generation
ago.

OK, low-communication (high context) _might_ be part of a culture, like a
preference towards old, white men. But I think it's one that cultures need to
jettison if they want to stay relevant.

~~~
angus77
I think you mean Japan was dirt poor a couple if generations ago. A generation
ago they were in the middle of their economic bubble. A couple of generations
ago, they were rebuilding from the devastation of World War II. Before that,
they were already an advanced industrialized nation, far ahead of their
neighbours.

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aangjie
Good topic for discussion. The article of course simplifies, but it was
inevitable. Anyway, being from india, i can see the validity of the point. I
am no highly active contributor in any open-source project, but have realized
(from participating in IRCs) i usually hold more context in my head than
others. Infact, i actively try to avoid that(just respond), and found that,
the discussion becomes too painful for others.(I was told there's too much
tooth pulling in an IRC forum, once as i tried this).

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danso
"Typically Asian countries are more high context than Western countries. Think
Korea and Japan."

"Low context cultures are process driven. They rely on facts and processes."

Ergo, Korean and Japanese programmers don't rely on facts and processes?

* in response to the downvotes: I'm not trying to be pedantic here. I can kind of guess what the author is trying to say, but this is such a vague, confusing statement as to be completely useless. Perhaps she meant some other phrase besides "facts and processes"?

~~~
stonemetal
In an unfamiliar situation a westerner is more likely to go it alone, follow
the signs and work through the process. Where as an easterner is more likely
to seek help and have a knowledgeable person walk them through it. So yeah a
western programmer is more than likely going to read the docs, and an eastern
programmer is more likely to have a meeting with the stake holders. They both
get the job done just in different ways.

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asolove
How much has this author worked in open source? Getting a patch into Linux is
pretty damn high-context, indeed git was created specifically as a way for
Linus to manage a network of trust instead of just a sea of patches.

~~~
hexis
She has a lot of experience in open source, to say the least. From the
author's about page -

"I currently work as the Head of Developer Engagement at Mozilla. I also am an
advisor for HFOSS, OpenSource World, and IntraHealth Open, as well as founder
and president of Kids on Computers, a nonprofit organization setting up
computer labs in schools where kids have no other access to technology.

Previously I have worked as Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation,
established OpenLogic‘s Expert Community and founded and ran HP’s Open Source
Program Office."

~~~
asolove
Nice, I should have read that. Thanks for the correction. I should read the
article again more seriously.

