[@OKFNau] BudgetAus going open source

Ryan Cross ryanecross at gmail.com
Sat Mar 8 10:47:35 UTC 2014


Hi Rosie,

You obviously trust this other person and I’m not sure how much experience
they have with open sourcing software, but I really wouldn’t worry about
getting blow back. Its pretty rare when someone is simultaneously (1)
freely giving their work away and (2) asking for help to improve for people
to be negative about it.

If you want another perspective, have a look at http://producingoss.com/ a
free book by O’Reily, with a 2nd edition in the works. This book covers
lots of the issues in more detail, but don’t get scared away.

If it will make you feel more confident, feel free to contact me privately.


On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 12:18 PM, Rosie Williams <budgetaus at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> Hi Ryan,
>
> Thanks for reminding me about the login file. I'm glad someone did! There
> is so much for me to think about right now which is why I guess I'm putting
> out feelers before I begin.
>
> The reason I asked about the polish aspect of the code (and having never
> worked to someone else's standard since I did CSS/XHTML through uni), is
> that someone else who has yet to see the code pointed out to me that I may
> get blowback and was concerned for me. I have to admit I've been doing
> whatever I wanted with zero assistance or guidance right from day one and
> I'm stretched across multiple projects too- it's not as though I was coding
> with the potential to open source in mind. It is a relatively sudden
> decision.
>
> Almost none of my code is documented because I made a decision to make
> myself work it out every time I went back to it. I doubt this is standard
> practice, it's just that I find documentation gets in the way of me reading
> the code and if I can figure it out I don't see why I need to document it
> for more experienced coders. My variables should be human readable but I
> guess I was curious to get opinions from other coders to see what they had
> to say.
>
>
> Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)
> Founder & Developer InfoAus.net
>    ABN 90 345 143 783
>                        Home <http://infoaus.net> | Blog<http://infoaus.net/wp>
>   | Twitter <https://twitter.com/Info_Aus> | BudgetAus FB<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Expenseaus/244247399060027?ref=hl>
>   <http://www.facebook.com/budgetaus>| eXpenseAusFB<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Expenseaus/244247399060027?ref=hl>
>  | BudgetAus <http://infoaus.net/budget/budget_home.php> | eXpenseAus<http://infoaus.net/budget/expenses/expenses_home.php>|
> KnowYourPlace <http://infoaus.net/seifa/seifa_home.php> | InfoAus Shop<http://www.cafepress.com/infoaus>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> From: ryanecross at gmail.com
> Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2014 11:44:09 +1100
>
> To: okfn-au at lists.okfn.org
> Subject: Re: [@OKFNau] BudgetAus going open source
>
> Hi Rosie,
>
> yep, I’m a php’er.
>
> I think its a great idea to take the opportunity to learn from other
> people by open sourcing the code. Even for more experienced developers, it
> is a VERY common concern that your work “isn’t up to standards” or “needs
> more polish before public viewing” but don’t let that dissuade or delay
> you. My biggest piece of advice would be to simply put it out there as is,
> and make your improvements in the public arena. The vast majority of people
> will simply applaud your efforts and offer some help - nobody was born with
> perfect coding skills. Anyone who is judgemental or otherwise negative
> towards your efforts will likely be rare and there is a very common
> response to them - “patches are welcome” - which you may word differently,
> but the point being that critiques of your code are welcome but are
> contributes that improve it are what helps.
>
> The only things you need to do before releasing the code are:
> 1) be comfortable with the license you choose, since sometimes it can be
> hard to change that, but at the end of the day its 100% your copyright
> (until you accept/incorporate other people’s contributions)
> 2) Remove any hard-coded passwords/keys/etc from your code. If it doubt,
> just remove it - you can always add it back to the public code later.
>
> release early, release often. :-)
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 3:25 PM, Rosie Williams <budgetaus at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
> Hi Ryan,
>
> Your name rings a bell, are you a PHP-er by any chance? I'll be needing
> decent coders to help me bring my code up to standard. When I started
> BudgetAus it was my first database project and I had no inkling it was
> going to become what it has and will become. One of the reasons I'm open
> sourcing is because it is too big for one person and so that people can do
> their own implementations and features.
>
> I have to admit though that I have not been following a standard wrt
> indenting or documentation & other bits and pieces. I'm sure that will be
> an affront to more disciplined coders. I'm looking at this as an
> opportunity to take on board the standards I should be applying but I could
> do with some help.
>
>
> Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)
> Founder & Developer InfoAus.net
>    ABN 90 345 143 783
>                        Home <http://infoaus.net> | Blog<http://infoaus.net/wp>
>   | Twitter <https://twitter.com/Info_Aus> | BudgetAus FB<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Expenseaus/244247399060027?ref=hl>
>   <http://www.facebook.com/budgetaus>| eXpenseAusFB<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Expenseaus/244247399060027?ref=hl>
>  | BudgetAus <http://infoaus.net/budget/budget_home.php> | eXpenseAus<http://infoaus.net/budget/expenses/expenses_home.php>|
> KnowYourPlace <http://infoaus.net/seifa/seifa_home.php> | InfoAus Shop<http://www.cafepress.com/infoaus>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> From: ryanecross at gmail.com
> Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2014 19:15:33 +1100
>
> To: okfn-au at lists.okfn.org
> Subject: Re: [@OKFNau] BudgetAus going open source
>
> here are some additional resources depending on how much you want to
> understand your decision.
>
>
> http://opensource.com/law/13/1/which-open-source-software-license-should-i-use
> http://www.billthelizard.com/2012/05/which-open-source-license.html  <-
> useful and humerous
> http://blog.codinghorror.com/pick-a-license-any-license/
>
> http://notesfromheck.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/which-open-source-license-should-you-choose/ <-
> practical flow chart
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 7:09 PM, Ryan Cross <ryanecross at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Rosie,
>
> I see someone has already pointed you to http://choosealicense.com/
>
> I think you should consider 2 licenses. You need one for the code, and
> likely a different one for the data. Unless you decide to release all of it
> under the public domain.
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 8:17 AM, Rosie Williams <budgetaus at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I've made a decision to open source the BudgetAus code (and data). I'd
> like feedback about which licence to use and the pros and cons of different
> licences or any other advice people have.
>
> If you wish, comments can go onto the forum at
> http://infoaus.net/forum/discussion/11/federal-budget#Item_7 if you want
> other people interested in budget transparency to read them.
>
> thanks
> Rosie
>
> Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)
> Founder & Developer InfoAus.net
>    ABN 90 345 143 783
>                        Home <http://infoaus.net> | Blog<http://infoaus.net/wp>
>   | Twitter <https://twitter.com/Info_Aus> | BudgetAus FB<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Expenseaus/244247399060027?ref=hl>
>   <http://www.facebook.com/budgetaus>| eXpenseAusFB<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Expenseaus/244247399060027?ref=hl>
>  | BudgetAus <http://infoaus.net/budget/budget_home.php> | eXpenseAus<http://infoaus.net/budget/expenses/expenses_home.php>|
> KnowYourPlace <http://infoaus.net/seifa/seifa_home.php> | InfoAus Shop<http://www.cafepress.com/infoaus>
>
>
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