Navigating the Bazaar

• Name: M Robert Martin
• Twitter: @version2beta
• GitHub: version2beta
• Website: version2beta.com

Abstract

Finding an open source library based on features, popularity, and code quality is a daunting task in the face of tens of thousands of modules. Navigating the Bazaar is about forming authenticate connections with the programmers who write the code libraries that we use every day, and relying on those connections when we are looking for new libraries. I propose we recognize that we are already in interdependent and mutually valuable relationships with these developers, and that we honor those connections, because it's part of making what we do and who we are into a single, holistic experience.

I have presented this talk at That Conference in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Some of the compliments included:

• [I've spoken at almost 20 conferences this year and your talk today was among the top 5 I've seen. Thank you for inspiration.][https://twitter.com/joshbroton/status/367710157607665664]
• [Awesome talk by @version2beta at #thatconference about socialization and open source projects. Very eye opening!][https://twitter.com/astralbodies/status/367689769423470592]
• [@version2beta said to be like a #Foodie when chosing an open source library. These are terms I understand. #thatconference.][https://twitter.com/smwroadrunner/status/367687989041700866]
• [Loved your #thatConference talk. Amazing how few think of the psychological side of OSS.][https://twitter.com/kopelli/status/367679183595401216]
• [@version2beta talk on Navigating the Bazaar of Open Source would have been a good opening keynote at #ThatConference][https://twitter.com/nathanmfast/status/367681146269597697]

My transcript with slides is available at [Navigating the Bazaar on version2beta.com][http://version2beta.com/articles/navigating-the-bazaar/].

Speaker bio

Version2beta's first professional gig was almost 3 decades ago, cost the company $30, and saved them $3 million in the first year. Once he learned how to get paid for his work, he designed the control system for the electric car that won the 1992 Solar and Electric Vehicle Association race, which the Associated Press reported as the first use of real-time race telemetry. Later projects included a dual-headed robot laser welder. Then the Internet got big and Version2beta shifted gears into cyberspace. He currently works as a developer at iTV in Provo, UT, where he helps create platforms for cultural discourse about broadcast media.

Outside of programming and devops, Version2beta is a cultural dissident, part-time communitarian, homesteader, and wannabe anarchoprimitivist.