[vtk-developers] Attracting next generation of developers

[David Gobbi]

The most important thing is to engage the community.  Developers will
be very forgiving about the process as long as you keep them engaged.

Community engagement requires:

- Responsive communication.  You don't need to always have the answer,
you just need to not be silent.

- Dedication.  Share your dreams and show that you care about the
future.  Help your employees to do the same.

- Transparency.  Lay out the roadmap for all to see.  Summarize
important development meetings on the wiki.

You got this NIH grant, so far I see OpenGL2 and community outreach
as aims, but for the most part I'm in the dark about your plans.  When
developers are kept in the dark, they feel like they're being shut out.


There are several potential pools of developers:

1) VTK developers that currently hoard their code instead of
contributing it back to VTK. This is a huge pool of capable
developers. As John indicated in his email from this morning,
process is important but the key is simple: when these people
want to contribute, don't flat-out ignore them!

2) Companies for whom VTK is a core tool, and who therefore have a
stake in its development.  Really, these are the same as (1) except
that they often have more resources.

3) Big grants and collaborations, where large chunks of development is
done outside of Kitware.  These undoubtedly help to increase the pool
of developers, so a the question is, how to keep those developers
engaged and ensure that good results are fed back into VTK.

4) Young hot-shots who see VTK as just the thing they need for their
new project.  For them, having a "Cool and Hip" VTK is important, but
the three bullet points at the top of this email are much, much more
important.

I've got tons more that I could ramble on about, but it's time for
breakfast (it's still 7am here in western Canada).

 - David