[vtk-developers] Attracting next generation of developers

[Berk Geveci]

Hi Bill,

+10 to more outreach and better documentation of, well, everything.

The language is probably an issue also. Let alone the C++ 11 issue, Python,
Javascript, Java etc. are definitely taking away some developers.

What I am most interested in is making some of the large group of users out
there into VTK developers. This is something we have never done well. Even
when we had bunch more users & developers. I think that this is an
accessibility thing. Being more open to contributions. Doing more outreach.
Doing more things like Google Summer of Code. Doing more hack-a-tons. Other
ideas?

Modernization is certainly part of it. Of course modernization while
maintaining the right level of usability - not something ITK has done
exceedingly well I have to say. We are making decent progress in this area.
Where we lack most often is communicating all of the work going on.

To me some of this comes back to workflow and tools by the way. Workflow
and tools make communication and outreach easier or harder. I'll leave that
part of the discussion to the other thread.

What do other people think? What are people willing to do more of?

Best,
-berk


On Tue, Aug 26, 2014 at 4:35 PM, Berk Geveci <berk.geveci at kitware.com>
wrote:

> Moved this discussion to a new thread.
>
> Berk,
>
> I think we need to reach out to potential developers. Especially those
> outside of Kitware(and their paying customers) and the long term VTK
> developers outside Kitware. Those communities can adapt to anything.
> We need to focus on is how can we can attract new developers. In the
> past, new processes were adopted and adapted by Kitware, their
> customers and hard core VTK developers with very little input from the
> broader community of potential developers.
>
> ITK is going through the same issues but addressing the issues not
> through process change. They are looking at outreach and better
> documentation of the current process. Matt McCormick at Kitware has
> been leading this effort.
>
> I think there are lots of non-process improvements possible. But I
> don't have a silver bullet for attracting new developers. Perhaps VTK
> is too old school for today's developers. Stuck with an old
> architecture, old graphics architecture, old and complex languages. I
> honestly don't know what the root causes are. If we only include the
> old-timers in theses discussion then we will not attract a younger set
> of devleopers.
>
> Bill
>
>
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