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Good talk, but we're not there yet (Score:1)
I think the 80/20 rule he explained was the most interesting bit. He says that 80% of all contributors give just a little tiny contribution, totalling to 20% of all contributions combined.
What he doesn't touch upon is the fact that these 80% also constitute 80% of the "recruitment base" of a project.
These 80% have recognized a project and invested enough time to give some kind of contribution - a bug report, a comment in an IRC channel, a documentation improvement, a recommendation or a patch. Their contribution may not have been big, but (as Clay Shirky hints) it may have been a important one. In any case, the contribution tells us about the commitment (potential or actual) from that person.
How can we make use of this potential? E.g. is there a clear, easily available and understandable path to follow for these 80%, so that it becomes more likely some of them "move up the graph" and contribute more?
I think this "escalating contributions path" could be better and more visible, if it at all exists.
Sure, props to Andreas, but there's still a long way to go, IMO.
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