This message is for Volunteer Contributors that I have yet to meet & to all those whom I appreciate b/c of past interactions.
Let me project here-- I think each one of us currently here desires to collaborate in an environment that is not only beautiful but also useful because it is created by each individual that accepts the social-contract of the ecosystem established, hopefully using the #opensouce sharingIScaring mentality.
By nature, sometimes we tend to be a bit sloppy, "maybe" because none is watching the result of our collaborative actions.
The Jakarta ecosystem does have a yearly budget and does have people in payroll YET it strives to make things clearer & easier to dive into.
To do so properly and maintain it in a form that represents its growing community, it requires diverse voices to speak up.
The bar is to be a rational human eager to teach and learn. No open source past experience is required for Volunteer Contributors.
TRUE:
Public domain software provides anyone the ability to leverage the software and not return a "thankyou" back to communities.
Jakarta EE is housed under the Eclipse Foundation, EF, a nonprofit entity. As such the Jakarta project doesn't have the financial pressure to report earnings & keep up with the general growth yearly rates of corporations in the software industry.
In Jakarta, by not enforcing the message that a "pay me back" is required to Volunteer Contributors, encourages anyone watching to recognize the software value but also see the worth of contributing just as well. The magnitude of feeding back this ecosystem to thank it via actions will maintain its beauty & functionality. Nothing is more important than YOU, the Volunteer Contributors.
In May, during the Jakarta EE 2020 WG Candidate elections I asked via this forum how many committers the project had. The reply was ~165 committers. To grow to 500 to 1000s committers that include not only code contributors will be the result of those helping today and those being inspired by the actions of others to join just as well. Merit to add value & feel valued today ought to go for life as records in this rebranding.
TRUE:
The reality is that Jakarta EE has Paid Contributors, more so than Volunteer Contributions because of its age (those Committers behind the organizations added into the Membership page) and Volunteer Contributors (working on the project mostly part-time).
The concern, I as a member of the WorkingGroup has and many WG peers have as well is aimed at tackling and continuing to work each day self-auditing that the Paid Contributors (many full timers) do not diminish the influence of the Volunteer Contributors (part time).
YET, the responsibility is not only for the Working Group but of everyone here today and in the future. We must watch & self-adit constantly how we collaborate, mental models come into play as so that extra efforts to over communicate via open forums, email.
Q: Are we leaving enough time and space for others, those Volunteer Contributors, to step in & provide feedback?
Diversity is at the heart of a kick ass community where anyone can fail & feel ok to do so publicly and feel stronger by it.
One of my favorite quotes applicable to this message is by Brene Brown:
“When I see people stand fully in their truth, or when I see someone fall down, get back up, and say, ‘Damn. That really hurt, but this is important to me and I’m going in again’—my gut reaction is, ‘What a badass.’”
There are so many ways to contribute to Jakarta EE, its vision is whatever we choose to uphold to.
Java EE was +18yrs old when it moved from Oracle to the EF, most of us were only informed.
For +2years, we have had a choice to join. Ask yourself, what about the next 20years as Jakarta EE? We have yet to tackle its very surface.
Open Source contributing ought to humble everyone contributing. There are no expert Foundations, there are no expert developers or managers.
For those who feel differently, do remember to check out THAT "I rock ego" before entering this arena. :) There are no titles that protect any of us from being call a bullshitter- openly via this forum or other forums, being called a cheap-contributor. The "me-first mentality" is a cancer to anything, lets watch it, call it out & move forward lighter, always lighter. #CommunityFIRST!
I look forward to attending the very first Friends of Jakarta on the 24th, I will wear my Jakarta t-shirt. :)
See many of you #ossDOERS with health then,
