[Freegis-list] Howto grow a user and developer community: two aspects

[Jan-Oliver Wagner]

Dear FreeGIS community,

I would like to make a comment of general interest
for the developers of Free Software:

Gaining an active user community and therewith eventually also
an active developer community is the aim of virtually any
Free Software project in order to establish a steady and sustainable
development process.
To achieve this, many aspects have to be considered of which
I want to outline two at this occasion:

- Add screenshots on the homepage (in case your tool has a GUI).

  People like to get a visual impression on what they will
  get when going to download and install a software.
  Note: Looking at screenshots takes a few seconds while
  download and installation takes considerably more time.

- Offer anonymous download.

  With offering Free Software, a mandatory registration for
  download will decrease the number of try-outs.
  People are reluctant either to spend additional
  time or to give away personal details in order to give the
  software a try.

  The arguments that second mandatory registration I've heard so
  far are (a) to track users and send them update information and
  (b) that people registering express a 'real' interest rather than
  a quick try-out-and-drop-after-incomplete-evaluation.

  Ad (a): If people are interested in a software or project, they
  will subscribe to corresponding mailing list on their own.
  You will have less people on such a list, but more who
  are really interested.
  Ad (b): You will loose those reluctant to spend additional
  time or relucatant to provide personal data who might
  otherways come to the conclusion that they like your project.
  In case your project gets very popular, sooner or later
  copies will be available from other sites anyway.

Best

	Jan

-- 
Jan-Oliver Wagner               http://intevation.de/~jan/

Intevation GmbH	              	     http://intevation.de/
FreeGIS	                               http://freegis.org/
-- 
Jan-Oliver Wagner               http://intevation.de/~jan/

Intevation GmbH	              	     http://intevation.de/
FreeGIS	                               http://freegis.org/