Sean Utt wrote:
> <sarcasm>Good to see</sarcasm> things haven't changed, and requests for
> features and improvements on the pgsql-hackers list can still degenerate
> rapidly into a discussion about how to request features and improvements.
>
> As Joshua Drake has pointed out before, most of the core people working
> on PostgreSQL don't actually use it for anything themselves.
<snip>
> Unfortunately for all of us,
> the communications, social, organizational, and people skills/talents
> necessary to envision and create the type of social structure that
> benefits the entire community are outside the range of experience of
> everyone on this list. How do I know that? Because if even one person
> had those talents/skills it would have happened already. That is what
> those type of people do, they can't help themselves.* I'm not sure that
> anyone reading this would even be able to recognize such a person if
> they met them.
I would argue that they know and recognize them but... they don't care.
They are -hackers. They care about code. Some of them in a tertiary
manner care about the entire paragraph above, others not at all.
I think if you look around what you will see is disparate group of
people all organizing the community in their own particular way for the
benefit of the community as a whole.
Consider the following, in the last 2 years we have had a number of
significant community events happen that allow for exactly what you are
stating above. Formation of the Fundraising group and affiliation with
Software in the Public Interest. This allowed us to execute the
Anniversary, PostgreSQL Conference West, as well as the upcoming EAST
conference. It also allowed to to provide help to PgDay.IT for last
years Italian PostgreSQL day. Since that time they have also formed
ITPUG and Italian non-profit for PostgreSQL. Lastly this affiliation has
allowed allowed the community as a whole to sponsor travel for
PostgreSQL speakers to various conferences and support major events such
as OSCON and LinuxWorld.
> Perhaps we should go fishing for some help from one of
> those "University Places"? From people outside the Computer Science
> department? Maybe even some people in Industrial Psychology? Somebody
> probably needs a Master's project....
Actually you just need to not be on -hackers :). This belongs over in
-advocacy.
Sincerely,
Joshua D. Drake