Added initial foundational documents as txt

[ftg.git] / how.txt

= How we do it. =

==== "Elevator pitch" ====

===== One floor =====
The aim of the FTG is to support people learning through practice in free technology projects. As a group will do useful projects for our members or external parties, and on-the-job we mentor and learn and get better.

===== Two floors =====

We provide learning and economic opportunities to participants interested in free technology projects, by involving them directly in real work teams.

==== Additional points ====

* We can make free technology work better by ''matching up  participants based on what they want, and what they can provide.''
* We can make free technology work better by ''building a  better (free, open, distributed, peer produced) knowledge base.''
* We can support learning by ''working with any/every partner  project working in this space''.  (Ideally, we would partner with organizations like Ohloh and OpenHatch that ''already'' work with many open source software projects.)
* We can help people provide more information about projects by ''building ontologies that describe free technology and its  processes.''
* We can be a communication platform, where we ''host all  kinds of exchanges about free technology (learning,  contractual/financial, etc.).''
* We can ''provide “sources of reputation” for people  working in this space.''
* We can ''offer consulting services to individual people and projects (about questions like “How can my free software project work better?”), where our advice is based on experience with a wide number of different projects''

==== Group rules ====

Most organizations (even society) publish a set of rules to guide how they want their people to act inside the organization. More often than not, most of these rules tell us what not to do. Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t use the copy machine after 8pm. Don’t use company resources for personal use. I think offering a set of rules is a good thing - they help maintain order inside an organization. Understanding the value of such guidance, I recently issued a set of rules to my team. But there’s a catch. In our organization, there will be no rules to tell us what not to do. Rules that tell us what not to do hold people back. Instead the rules should help push people forward. In our group, the rules consist of a list of the things that are allowed. It’s called the ''Allowed List'', and this is what it says.

''We are allowed to:''

# ''Make'' the decision you think is the right decision to make
# ''Start'' something that needs to be started to help advance the cause
# ''Ask'' for help whenever you want it
# ''Help'' others whenever you can (even if they don’t ask for it)
# ''Take'' time off to do something that inspires, excites and energizes you

Everyone decides to support the project I hope should follow these rules and everyone is expected to hold theothers accountable to them. After all, if we didn’t follow the rules...there’d be chaos.