[Sigia-l] UI for the $150 Laptop (OLPC)

[Ziya Oz]

Celeste 'seele' Paul:

(I hope you take this the way it's intended and not personally.)

> Considering that would only piss off developers and not really get anything
> done...

I find this approach, what's the word, dangerous.

I shouldn't have to worry about pissing off or inconveniencing developers to
be able to criticize the design/UX aspects of a project. Any project. I've
always found the knee-jerk reaction of the open source community ("either
join us or stop whining") to be one of its most critical short comings.

Either as a user or an un-engaged designer I don't have to do anything. That
shouldn't mean that I automatically lose my ability to bring criticism to
the table. Why? Because, above all, it shortchanges the open source
community of a source of evaluation and, hopefully, improvement. It's myopic
in the extreme.

> I wouldnt suggest staging an attack on all their hard work.

Criticism is not the same as "attack" and I hadn't yet engaged in either. Do
we stop criticizing design work because somebody "worked hard on it"? What
kind of absurdity is that?

> If you are truly interested in contributing to OLPC, I suggest joining the
> sugar mailing list or getting in contact with some of the developers
> (sugar at laptop.org).

"Truly interested"? So you're saying that if I don't "contact some of the
developers," my intentions are automatically suspect? That's offensive.
 
> Rule #1 in Open Source Usability is Dont Go In With Guns
> Blazing.  

Are you suggesting that we have a *different* standard of usability for open
source? Is that what you really want?

> OSS developers dont appreciate when outsiders come in and "critique" their
> work without making the effort to become intimate with the project, and I
> suspect it is the same way with OLPC.

Again, this is a self-delusional approach to design evaluation. That's like
saying when a movie sucks reviewers shouldn't be able to criticize it
because a) they weren't there and b) it was hard to produce.

> What works in industry only works because there is someone on top who signs
> all the checks.  

No, because there's various forms of accountability, one of which is the
approval and appreciation of users. (BTW, it's absurd to claim that OSS
practitioners are always unpaid.)

> OSS is not industry and the rules are very different.

In the end, from the POV of users, who cares what the rules of OSS are!
"Outsiders" would not be evaluating production methods of OSS, just the
resulting design at the end. I hope you're not asking for the equivalent of
affirmative action in design evaluation for OSS projects. Are you?


Ziya
Nullius in Verba