Transparency, iteration, egoless participation, and embracing imperfection are the tools we use to build WordPress community. One or more of these open source principles are applied to the work we do within the WordPress Community.
A prime examples can be seen in the Five Good Faith Rules, expectations set by the community for community organizers.
Working in open collaboration, WordPress meetup organizer established these rules as basic expectations for any meetup group that wished to join the WordPress Chapter program. Here are the Five Good Faith Rules followed by the open source principles they represent:
- The group is for the benefit of the community, not specific businesses or individuals. (egoless participation)
- Membership is open to anyone. (many eyes, and also modeling that open bazaar concept)
- Everything is volunteer-based; speakers or organizers are not paid. (egoless participation)
- Anyone can organize an event. (many eyes, release early/often, “personal itch,” egoless participation, and also the open bazaar.)
- The community works together to make a welcoming environment, and discriminatory behavior is not accepted. (many eyes)
Welcoming, inclusive communities are truly necessary if we are trying to truly build a lively, open bazaar that makes open source work so well.
If people think they don’t belong at an event, they are more likely to think they don’t belong in the community. If people don’t think they belong in the community, they will not participate. If only certain people participate, then the project is only useful for those certain people.