There is one thing I would like to accomplish the next year and that is to contribute more to Open Source projects. I have never been very active in contributing patches, documentation or maintaining projects. It used to be because getting into it seemed as too much work. With GitHub this is no longer the case. Taking part and contributing is just so simple and easy. How come I feel this need now to start taking more active part in the OSS community?

Too many people try to change their surroundings and feel miserable while doing it. If you’re not happy with something, either suck it up or move on! There’s nothing in the human rights about the right to always feel great at work. If you’re not, it is up to you to change your situation. The chances that something will make you feel different in a while are slim. Nobody is going to look at your situation and sort things out.

Software development as a cooperative game http://alistair.cockburn.us/Cooperative+game+manifesto+for+software+development This quote got me thinking today, because if it really is a cooperative game and teams are how we structure people working to solve problems, shouldn’t we look towards other team activities for inspiration? When you work as a team, it is important to have diversity and a mixed set of skills. Especially in software development cross-functional teams is something that can be a good thing.

I have had the privilege of getting to put on a conference about one of the things that I love: web development. It was pure coincidence that I ended up here. I am not a very active community member and I usually shy away from additional work. What is especially weird is that I ended up being the guy doing the finance and accounting stuff! Being at the venue on day one of the Web Rebels Conference seeing that things are actually running quite well is an amazing feeling.

Since the time of BBS’s and up until the social media of today, people have been exchanging opinions using digital tools. My first encounters with discussion forums was positive and I’ve always been an eager participant in countless exchanges of opinions. These days when most dialog happens in the context of 140 characters (or there about) I feel that something has changed. We no longer exchange opinions and listen to differing points of view.