It begins with a need
Rick Trotter
@tskynet
http://tsky.net
Thursday, 16 May 13
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open source / closed source
Source code - the actual
‘code’, or ‘instructions’
people type into computers to
create software.
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source code
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open source / closed source
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open source !== Free
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it begins with a need
My church had no offices,
building or admin staff.
We were paying for a SaaS
member database solution.
£1200 per year
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so I built my own
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Kongreg8
Was a simple PHP/MySQL application
It held member data for churches
Allowed groups to be created
Allowed them to email groups
Allowed storage and retrieval from
anywhere from phones or laptops
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a need becomes a want
People started taking notice of
what I was doing through word-of-
mouth.
I had a few UK churches paying
£200->£300 per year to host my
system.
Pound signs started to appear in my
head.
I wanted a slice of the ‘global
action’
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an act can become an undoing
Years passed, life had it’s usual
ups and downs.
One day I woke up and realised my
system was still unattainable to
people that needed it..
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...I decided to do something
drastic...
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...I decided to give away my
software
for free to anyone that needed
it...
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The moment you decide to open-
source your project, you have
this gut-wrenching fear you’re
about to be abused (real hard)
by people much better than
you...
warning!
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it begins with a need
churches need to be able to
store information about
members and keep in touch with
them.
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a need becomes a gift
I wrapped a GNU GPL license
around my own software.
I uploaded it to SourceForge.
I waited for the backlash
abuse.
I anticipated zero downloads.
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Release 1 - countries
0
2.5
5.0
7.5
10.0
United States
Netherlands
South Africa
United Kingdom
China
Brazil
Chile
Canada
Indonesia
India
France
Portugal
Zimbabwe
Peru
Ghana
Nigeria
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Release 2 - countries
0
25
50
75
100
United States
South Africa
Nigeria
Brazil
Kenya
Australia
India
Philippines
Indonesia
United Kingdom
Tanzania
Ghana
Argentina
Europe (specific country unknown)
Canada
France
Germany
Bahrain
Uganda
Bolivia
Zimbabwe
China
Haiti
Poland
Colombia
Denmark
Cameroon
Mexico
Ireland
Lebanon
Hungary
Costa Rica
Saint Vincent and The Grenadines
Swaziland
Venezuela
Viet Nam
Satellite Provider
Norway
Chile
Puerto Rico
Belgium
Turkey
Sweden
Thailand
Russia
Pakistan
United Arab Emirates
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a gift is reciprocated
People are actually using this?
People are asking me questions
about it!?
Churches are connecting with
members!
I’m enjoying this and I’m not
worrying about getting paid..
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a gift can wear-out
It had been many, many years
since I first wrote the system
The codebase sucked llama ass
I needed to OOP-ify my code,
but I didn’t have time or even
know how to
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it begins with a need
I needed to rebuild my
codebase
I needed to learn PHP OOP
methods
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a need becomes an act
I took all my code
I threw it in the bin
I started again
I started to teach myself OOP
methods
I switched to Github
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an act becomes a gift
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a gift can be a curse
There are crazy people out there
who will criticise you for no
reason
There are people who will actively
belittle your work
It sucks to hear how awful your
codebase is
Every error is turned into a giant
neon sign
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focus on your need
Have no time for idiots
Be open and honest with your user
base
Fix what you can
Do your best
Keep learning
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keep the cycle
I’m not happy with my R&D codebase.
Needs can change.
Technology changes.
People change.
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Focus on needs.
Make a difference
to someone.
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Kongreg8
@kongreg8
http://pizzaboxsoftware.co.uk/
kongreg8
github.com/tsky/kongreg8_os2
Thursday, 16 May 13