[Zope-dev] the Zope Framework project

[Martin Aspeli]

Martijn Faassen wrote:

> Okay, I guess we do differ here. I think a leader can provide 
> encouragement and stimulate people into action, point out interesting 
> outstanding tasks, and make sure that people who are motivated actually 
> get grip on improving the project and don't get discouraged. Of course 
> all these things only happen *some* of the time. It's hardly magic. But 
> it does contribute in my experience.

A good example of this working well, is the role Martijn plays on the 
Grok list. He collates things that need doing, spells them out, and asks 
for volunteers. Sometimes that's all it takes.

He also provides some degree of authority to make conversations 
productive. I remember being slapped down rather well over the Grok 
website at one point, for example. :) And if we are to beat the website 
analogy again (I really shouldn't...), then having that leadership 
probably allowed Grok to create a website with content, whereas the 
equivalent (and parallel) Zope effort died because no-one felt 
particularly obliged to answer a "cold call" for volunteers.

There's more to leadership than that, but I think it's a useful comparison.

Martin

-- 
Author of `Professional Plone Development`, a book for developers who
want to work with Plone. See http://martinaspeli.net/plone-book