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Implementing new features for FlightGear: Difference between revisions
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Implementing new features for FlightGear (view source)
Revision as of 18:00, 17 May 2014
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If you already have a history of bringing projects to a conclusion, people are far, far more likely to support you. If you have not, because you're just starting out, the best thing you can do is a proof of concept. Perhaps something should really be in C++ for performance reasons - but you can make a simple proof of concept in Nasal scripting space. Once people see that you're actually investing time and work rather than talk, and once they can see what you want to do, you're again more likely to get support. | If you already have a history of bringing projects to a conclusion, people are far, far more likely to support you. If you have not, because you're just starting out, the best thing you can do is a proof of concept. Perhaps something should really be in C++ for performance reasons - but you can make a simple proof of concept in Nasal scripting space. Once people see that you're actually investing time and work rather than talk, and once they can see what you want to do, you're again more likely to get support. | ||
== Getting People involved == | |||
One of the most common show-stoppers preventing people from succeeding with their ideas, feature requests or projects is the lack of networking, and the unwilling to compromise and make sacrifices. The common pattern we get to see is that people want '''their''' particular idea to be implemented immediately, expecting us to drop pretty much anything and provide support to them. Obviously, this is not how things work - just imagine for a second, somebody were to ask you to drop your own ideas and projects in favor of some random new idea. | |||
However, there '''is''' a way to have your cake and still it eat, by going more slowly. To get people involved, you need to get them interested, and you need to motivate them. Usually, most contributors have different ideas about FlightGear, and very different priorities, skills and expertise. So the point really is compromising. Finding overlapping areas of interest, i.e. common goals. Very often, that means that people may not directly work towards the original project, but rather some interim milestones, as part of some longer-term '''roadmap'''. That way, contributing becomes pretty much a '''journey''', where you may meet people willing to accompany you for a certain time, task and project, until their own goals have been reached. | |||
In retrospective, this is exactly how some of the most popular base package projects took shape, despite a lack of momentum: People were willing to compromise their original goals by talking to others who had overlapping, or at least similar, goals and found a way to collaborate to a certain degree, even though every contributor would still keep his own goals and priorities in mind. | |||
In general, it is unlikely that you'll be able to directly form a team of people who share your motivation, goals and expertise - and even then, you may find yourself missing other components that are required for a successful project, such as expertise in certain areas (3D modeling, texturing, programming, scripting, effects or shaders etc). This is why you'll typically have to reach out other contributors and ask them to get involved. And this is also exactly where most people fail right from the beginning: because they're more focused on their own goals and projects, than demonstrating to fellow contributors, how they can help improve others lives. | |||
Conceptually, this boils down to thinking in terms of components, i.e. building blocks that need to be established in order to accomplish something. It is very likely that a dozen unrelated projects may benefit from very similar building blocks - typically, there's at least a handful of needs that projects may have in common. | |||
Successful contributors realize that such overlapping areas are an excellent opportunity to get others involved. | |||
Still, there may be areas with little, if any, momentum and where networking doesn't seem feasible, this is where you may have to do an upront investment to get other contributors involved. | |||
== Be persistent == | == Be persistent == | ||