Cookies, karaoke and the quest for tuits

Out of all the pre-COVID activities we’ve been resuming over the past year, the one that has made me happiest is the return of in-person library conferences. There are so many benefits to online conferences, including their wide availability to people who otherwise could not travel to a conference, but there is nothing like getting together in the same space with professional colleagues to learn, problem solve, and catch up with one another.

This time next month, one of my favorite library conferences is coming to me when the Evergreen International Conference makes its way to Worcester, MA, just an hour away from my home. Although I am no longer an Evergreen community member, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet up with the colleagues and friends I made during the nine years I served as the coordinator for the Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative. Not only will I be able to attend a day of the conference, but I also have the privilege of being the Day 2 keynote speaker when I will speak about burn out in open-source communities. I also plan to drive up to Worcester throughout the week to participate in the nighttime social activities. It should be a lot of fun!

In addition to providing a venue for workshops, presentations, and committee meetings, the Evergreen conference is an opportunity for members of this open-source community to get stuff done. There are many ongoing tasks required to maintain an open-source project, and it can be difficult for contributors to allocate the time necessary to keep up with the workload. 

Our community often talks about the need for round tuits to do the things that need doing (when I get “around to it”). And there are many ways in which the community tries to provide these tuits to contributors. The developer and documentation hackfests on the first day of the conference are one method for giving contributors the time to work on the project. Not only can contributors focus on specific projects without the everyday interruptions from their jobs, but they have the opportunity to meet face to face to discuss goals and set direction for the project. 

Tuits can also be given by funding sponsored development projects. In my former position, I was often able to allocate lots of funding for getting these enhancements and bug fixes done. When you don’t have money, you try to find more creative ways to get tuits to your contributors. Evergreen Bug Squashing Days, an idea borrowed from the Koha community, were an attempt to get community members to focus one day per quarter on fixing bugs in the software. They have since evolved into Bug Squashing Weeks that bring together all facets of the community, not just developers, but anyone who can confirm a bug exists or test a fix.

Some open-source communities come up with reward systems as a way to create tuits. High karma scores and badges are given to those who give their time to their community. 

I liked to incorporate fun into the process of encouraging contributions. As an example, prior to the 2015 Evergreen Conference in Hood River, OR, I solicited donations for three important development projects by promising to bake a batch of cookies for any organizations contributing funds. The development partners obviously contributed because they wanted to see these much-needed features in the software, but they also were very appreciative of the cookies they received at conference time.

Other community members have also found fun ways to keep me on task. For several years, my colleague, Rogan Hamby, and I worked together on the Evergreen community annual report. When we worked on the first 2015 report, Rogan quickly found out that I’m a deadline-oriented person, which is problematic for the person who must wait for me to complete all my work before he could create the layout and make the report look beautiful. 

As we began work on the 2016 report, he was ready for me. After we set our deadlines for the project, he came up with a way to motivate us to meet every one of those deadlines. If we missed any deadline for the report, we each agreed that we would sing karaoke at the next Evergreen conference. Prior to that moment, I don’t think I had ever shared with Rogan my great fear of public singing, but he had hit on the perfect motivational factor to ensure I hit my deadlines. We didn’t miss a single deadline for that report, and I got through the 2017 conference without burdening any community members with my terrible singing voice. I also refused to make a similar agreement for the next year’s annual report (my last one) – my stress at the idea that I might be required to sing in public was too great. 

It’s been more than four years since I left the Evergreen community, but I still try to maintain connections with the community. When I have a day off from work, I often pop into the #evergreen IRC channel to distract people who are otherwise busy at the work needed to support this open-source project. During one of these visits a few months ago, the topic of tuits came up, along with the idea of a tuit cookie. We agreed that coffee would be a key ingredient for this cookie; otherwise, this theoretical cookie was left undefined.

I am pleased to announce that after a couple of months of experimentation in my kitchen, I have finally created the perfect tuit cookie.

This cookie is chewy and chocolatey with enough coffee to keep you alert and a surprise zing at the end to keep you moving. I am not sharing the recipe (yet), but, if you are planning to attend the Evergreen conference in Worcester, you’ll have a chance to get your own tuit cookies by participating in my tuit challenge.

Tuit Challenge

I plan to bake these cookies and give them to any Evergreen conference attendee who commits to working on one project, no matter how big or how small, that benefits the Evergreen community on the conference hackfest day. A few tuit cookies by your side are sure to help your productivity throughout the day. You can accept this challenge by filling out this form and letting me know what you intend to work on by the end of the day Friday, April 21. That’s it. The cookies will be delivered first thing Wednesday morning, so you don’t even need to follow through on your commitment, but I hope that you make some progress on it. 

My one request is that you work on something that you would not otherwise be able to work on from your libary/office. That’s the point of the hackfest – to work on projects you otherwise would not have time for. It doesn’t need to be coding. It could be documentation, testing, Launchpad cleanup, Evergreen web site / wiki updates, work for the Outreach Committee, etc. Anything that will benefit the Evergreen community is fair game.

But there’s more…!

If 5% of conference attendees participate in this challenge (8 people as of March 28), I will agree to sing karaoke at some point during the conference, most likely at a time that doesn’t conflict with other social activities. If we get double that number of commitments, I will let Rogan Hamby pick the song (please be kind Rogan!). 

There are a few guidelines that go along with the karaoke piece of this challenge:

• I agree that I will not pick Tequila as my song. 
• Rogan is not obligated to honor any previous promises requiring him to sing karaoke if I ever did it.
• If Rogan picks the song, he has to let me know what it is a week ahead of time so that I have time to practice, learn the words, etc. 

Pet Project

The best part of issuing a challenge is that I can also try to steer people towards a pet project that would make me very happy to see done. With that in mind, if anyone decides to commit to working on getting the next OpenSRF release out the door, I will count them as two people in the karaoke challenge.

Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend the hackfest day of the conference and make my own contributions to the project. However, by issuing this challenge, I’m hoping I can have some impact on getting others excited about doing important work for the community at the conference.

Happy contributing!