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Seth
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1 month ago
in why collaborative skills matter in open source on eaves.ca
whoa, this is terrific post!
one question: do hierarchies that are built on merit and performance (like mozilla's meritocratic nature) foster collaboration early on so all can participate? i may be missing your point, but was trying to think about how mozilla fosters success in its community. it seems that a new developer will find a level of credibility and acceptance at mozilla by showing what problem he or she solved with code and how it was done, but not necessarily through collaboration. so, a new developer has to present all that he or she does before actually reaching out for help...just to get in the door...
does building a community on meritocracy create a barrier that is an initially very high transaction cost? and, because there is that initial transaction cost, does it persist throughout the culture to try to climb the ranks of the meritocracy?
one question: do hierarchies that are built on merit and performance (like mozilla's meritocratic nature) foster collaboration early on so all can participate? i may be missing your point, but was trying to think about how mozilla fosters success in its community. it seems that a new developer will find a level of credibility and acceptance at mozilla by showing what problem he or she solved with code and how it was done, but not necessarily through collaboration. so, a new developer has to present all that he or she does before actually reaching out for help...just to get in the door...
does building a community on meritocracy create a barrier that is an initially very high transaction cost? and, because there is that initial transaction cost, does it persist throughout the culture to try to climb the ranks of the meritocracy?
1 reply
I think you do hit on a point here. That the initial barrier to entry is high, and there is a risk that, for some, credibility only comes by presenting completed solutions and that reaching out before then means you will struggle to get help or acceptance within the community. This could be a barrier hindering community growth and participation. Moreover, this could impact the culture and structure of the meritocracy by self-selecting community members who value work that is completed and who themselves tend to share their work when it is in a finished form.