anatomy of Gnus as a project and as a community

anatomy of Gnus as a project and as a community

[Michael Totschnig]

Hello,

in the course of my Ph.D. in communication studies, I have been
recently involved in a research project about the free software
movement. Since Gnus is probably the software I spend most time with,
I decided to take Gnus as the object of my contribution to this
project. What I would like to do, is write a sort of anatomy of Gnus
as a project. Particularly I aim at  

- understanding how development and use interact;
- describing how using Gnus differs from using other MUAs and news-readers;
- describing the nature of the community of Gnus' users and developers;
- describing the infrastructure sustaining this community, the material
  and informational configurations that are needed for Gnus being
  developed, maintained, distributed, installed, administered,
  configured and used,
- understanding how the knowledge inscribed in, and associated with
  Gnus is distributed.

In my methodology I intend to combine an analysis of the exchanges on
the gnus newsgroups, an interview with Lars (who kindly agreed to answer
by email and face-to-face recently when he came to Montreal), a
description of the workings of Gnus, and a survey of Gnus' users and
developers. This last item is the object of this posting.

I want to ask you to answer the survey attached below, and to return it to
me by email. The results of my research will be published primarily in
French, but I will at least write a synthesis in English and present
it to the Gnus community. I will cite information you disclose in
this survey only anonymously, except if you explicitly give me
authorisation do do otherwise. Any code fragments you might provide
however will be attributed to you, except if you explicitly wish
otherwise. 

If you have any comments and suggestions about the survey, I'd be very
interested in hearing about them, too. I am interested in the answers
from novice users as well as from long term developers. If you know
any Gnus users who do not read the gnus newsgroups, feel free to
forward this message to them.

Many thanks in advance for your effort! Any answer I receive before 5
of August 2001 will be taken into account.

Regards,

Michael

Survey: Gnus, anatomy of a free software project
================================================
Michael Totschnig
20 july 2001

0) statistics (optional)

0.1) your age

0.2) your sex

0.3) your profession

0.4) your country

1) usage
 
1.1) Which version of Gnus do you use, which version of Emacs, on what
     operating system

1.2) Do you use Gnus on your own computer, or on a system controlled and
     administered by an institution?

1.3) For how long have you been using Gnus?

1.4) In what context did you hear about Gnus the first time?

1.5) How would you describe the original incentive for starting to use
     Gnus?

1.6) Is Gnus your only mail user agent (MUA) / news-reader? If no,
     which others do you use?
 
1.7) How often did you upgrade to a new version of Gnus until today?

1.8) how much time do you spend using Gnus (absolute and relative to
     whole time spent working on computers)?

1.9) What are the features of Gnus you appreciate most?

1.10) What are the aspects of Gnus you dislike?

1.11) Has using Gnus an influence on the form or content of messages
      you send?

1.12) Has using Gnus an influence on your relationship with the
      persons or groups with whom you communicate by email or news? 

1.13) What are the most important impacts of using Gnus on your work
      practices (leisure practices)?

1.14) Did using Gnus change the way you perceive electronic mail and
      Usenet (or any other systems you are using Gnus for)?

1.15) How is your use of Gnus integrated with other applications in your
      computing environment?

1.16) customisation:

1.16.1) How much time do you spend on configuring Gnus?

1.16.2) What is the size of your .gnus.el file? 
	Is your .gnus.el file publicly accessible?
	Would you be willing to attach it to your answer 
	(after editing it to delete personal information)?

1.16.3) What in your way of using Gnus differs most from the default
	setting?

1.16.4) To what degree does your way of using Gnus realize the way an
	ideal MUA/news-reader should work for you?

1.16.5) To what degree do you see Gnus primarily as a tool helping you
	to do your work and to communicate, or as a toy to experiment with?

  
2) development

2.1) would you say that you have been "programming" Gnus?
     If yes, has the result been kept for your own use, posted
     publicly, or integrated in the official release? 

2.2) Do you actively play a role in the Gnus community, for example as
     active contributor (with CVS write access), by occasionally
     submitting bug reports, contributing to discussions about
     features and problems, submitting patches, helping users, or
     maintaining other resources?

2.3) If you contribute to Gnus on a regular basis, how much time do you
     invest per week in these tasks?

2.4) Can you describe you motivations for engaging in these tasks?

2.5) Name some of your contributions to the Gnus community, that you
     consider are most relevant for other users?

2.6) With how much of Gnus' source code are you approximately familiar?

2.7) Is your engagement for Gnus acknowledged and/or recompensed by your
     family, your school, your employer, or any other institution?

3) knowledge

3.1) How would you describe the knowledge you had to acquire in order to
     use Gnus, can you describe how this knowledge evolved, from what
     sources it was built?

3.2) How often in the course of using Gnus are you confronted with
     situations where you have to look for information before succeeding to
     do what you want? Can you describe one such situation?

3.3) Did you apply the knowledge you gained from studying the workings
     of Gnus and from using it in other contexts? Can you describe one such
     context and the kind of knowledge you applied?


4) community

4.1) Do you conceive of the users and developers of Gnus as one
     community, two different communities, no community at all?

4.2) How would you qualify this community (these communities)?

4.3) How would you describe the relation between users and developers? 

4.4) What would be the values shared by this community (these communities)? 

4.5) What is the place of the Gnus community with respect to wider 
     online communities (Emacs, free software, Usenet, Internet)? 

4.6) Can you think of any links between these communities and offline
     institutions or communities?

5) infrastructure

5.1) Which of the following resources do you use? Specify how often, and
     give any commentary you consider important about how they affect the
     way you use Gnus:
     gnus.emacs.gnus
     gnus.ding
     www.gnus.org
     my.gnus.org
     CVS 
     others

Please indicate if you'd let me ask you some additional questions by
email. Please indicate if you do not mind information you disclosed
being attributed to you in publications resulting from this
research. Thank you very much for your time!

-- 
Michael Totschnig
PGP/GPG-Public-Key: http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/d364101/pgp.shtml

Re: anatomy of Gnus as a project and as a community

[Michael Totschnig]

all my excuses for posting my message three times.I had tried to post
it several times, Gnus using my ISPs news server, and I got 
441 Posting Failed (Article NOT Posted to a Valid Newsgroup).
It's only now that I realize that crossposting to gnus.ding and
gnu.emacs.gnus wasn't a very clever idea.
When I tried to post via news.gnus.org there was no message 
Sending... done, and I was left in the message buffer. That's why I
concluded that the message hadn't been sent, and tried to send it
again.
I hope my mistake won't lead you to question the seriousness of my
request.

Michael

Re: anatomy of Gnus as a project and as a community

[Doug Alcorn]

Michael Totschnig <totschnig.michael@courrier.uqam.ca> writes:

> 0) statistics (optional)
> 
> 0.1) your age

30

> 0.2) your sex

male

> 0.3) your profession

computer programmer

> 0.4) your country

USA

> 1) usage
>  
> 1.1) Which version of Gnus do you use, which version of Emacs, on what
>      operating system

XEmacs 21.4 (patch 2) "Developer-Friendly Unix APIs" [Lucid] (i686-pc-linux)
Gnus v5.8.8

> 1.2) Do you use Gnus on your own computer, or on a system controlled and
>      administered by an institution?

I use gnus at home on my own computer and at work (same versions as
1.1) which is a dedicate linux box to me (company owned, self
administered)

> 1.3) For how long have you been using Gnus?

four years

> 1.4) In what context did you hear about Gnus the first time?

Don't remember

> 1.5) How would you describe the original incentive for starting to use
>      Gnus?

integration with xemacs

> 1.6) Is Gnus your only mail user agent (MUA) / news-reader? If no,
>      which others do you use?

Gnus is my oly mua.

> 1.7) How often did you upgrade to a new version of Gnus until today?

I always upgrade to latest stable and once or twice to a development
version for specific features.

> 1.8) how much time do you spend using Gnus (absolute and relative to
>      whole time spent working on computers)?

> 1.9) What are the features of Gnus you appreciate most?

group based posting parameters, multiple server accounts, familiarity

> 1.10) What are the aspects of Gnus you dislike?

complexity to setup, complexity to learn new features

> 1.11) Has using Gnus an influence on the form or content of messages
>       you send?

not sure i understand the question.  my mail content isn't determined
by Gnus.  I guess you might say that using gnus has helped me have rfc
compliant messages.

> 1.12) Has using Gnus an influence on your relationship with the
>       persons or groups with whom you communicate by email or news? 

I know a small subset of the gnus developers and correspond via the
gnus mailing list that i wouldn't have done otherwise.

> 1.13) What are the most important impacts of using Gnus on your work
>       practices (leisure practices)?

email

> 1.14) Did using Gnus change the way you perceive electronic mail and
>       Usenet (or any other systems you are using Gnus for)?

treating email and usenet the same was a smart thing.  it's seems
strange to treat them differently now.

> 1.15) How is your use of Gnus integrated with other applications in your
>       computing environment?

I do all of my work (application development) in xemacs.  Gnus let's
me read and answer mail without having to leave that app.

> 1.16) customisation:
> 
> 1.16.1) How much time do you spend on configuring Gnus?

at first, a log.  now almost no time.  occationally i will see a new
trick and use it.

> 1.16.2) What is the size of your .gnus.el file? 

130 lines

> 	Is your .gnus.el file publicly accessible?

not at the present

> 	Would you be willing to attach it to your answer 
> 	(after editing it to delete personal information)?

sure.  my .gnus.el isn't that interesting though.

> 1.16.3) What in your way of using Gnus differs most from the default
> 	setting?

i've a pretty standard setup

> 1.16.4) To what degree does your way of using Gnus realize the way an
> 	ideal MUA/news-reader should work for you?
> 
> 1.16.5) To what degree do you see Gnus primarily as a tool helping you
> 	to do your work and to communicate, or as a toy to experiment with?
> 
>   
> 2) development
> 
> 2.1) would you say that you have been "programming" Gnus?
>      If yes, has the result been kept for your own use, posted
>      publicly, or integrated in the official release? 

no

> 2.2) Do you actively play a role in the Gnus community, for example as
>      active contributor (with CVS write access), by occasionally
>      submitting bug reports, contributing to discussions about
>      features and problems, submitting patches, helping users, or
>      maintaining other resources?

I'm a sideline participant.  I go to the newsgroups/mailing lists when
I have specific problems.  I read most of the posts at other times.
When I feel I have something to add to the discussion I do.

> 2.3) If you contribute to Gnus on a regular basis, how much time do you
>      invest per week in these tasks?
> 
> 2.4) Can you describe you motivations for engaging in these tasks?
> 
> 2.5) Name some of your contributions to the Gnus community, that you
>      consider are most relevant for other users?
> 
> 2.6) With how much of Gnus' source code are you approximately
> familiar?

 none

> 2.7) Is your engagement for Gnus acknowledged and/or recompensed by your
>      family, your school, your employer, or any other institution?

no

> 3) knowledge
> 
> 3.1) How would you describe the knowledge you had to acquire in order to
>      use Gnus, can you describe how this knowledge evolved, from what
>      sources it was built?

At first, it took me a lot of time to just get a functional setup.
Over time I've evolved into using more and more sources.  Originally I
used gnus for sorting mail.  A big step was when I switched to
procmail for filtering.  Another big step was when I switched over to
imap.  Most of the knowlege came directly from the Gnus info pages
with questions getting answered on the newsgroup or mailing list.

> 3.2) How often in the course of using Gnus are you confronted with
>      situations where you have to look for information before succeeding to
>      do what you want? Can you describe one such situation?

Most of what I do in Gnus is pretty standard.  Every few months I hear
of some trick that seems like it would be cool.  I then spend anywhere
up to a day or so figuring it out.  Recently on the #emacs irc channel
I learned about doing adaptive scoring from someone there.  They
shared their .gnus.el and I pirated their settings.  After discussing
with them how it worked, I've been happily using it for a week or so.

> 3.3) Did you apply the knowledge you gained from studying the workings
>      of Gnus and from using it in other contexts? Can you describe one such
>      context and the kind of knowledge you applied?

not really

> 4) community
> 
> 4.1) Do you conceive of the users and developers of Gnus as one
>      community, two different communities, no community at all?

I think there's a division between developers and users.  Although,
there's no real barrier between them.  The users are encouraged and
free to join the developer community at any time.  As primarily a
users, I have not found any "snubbing" by the developers.


> 4.2) How would you qualify this community (these communities)?
> 
> 4.3) How would you describe the relation between users and developers? 
> 
> 4.4) What would be the values shared by this community (these
> communities)? 

flexibility, conformance to standards, and flexibility

> 4.5) What is the place of the Gnus community with respect to wider 
>      online communities (Emacs, free software, Usenet, Internet)? 

i think of the gnus community as a subset of the emacs community.  as
far as the internet at large, we are a very small subset.

> 4.6) Can you think of any links between these communities and offline
>      institutions or communities?
> 
> 5) infrastructure
> 
> 5.1) Which of the following resources do you use? Specify how often, and
>      give any commentary you consider important about how they affect the
>      way you use Gnus:

i primarly use the ding mailing list.  i used to use one of the news
groups, but my nntp servers were too unreliable.  i also go to
www.gnus.org on occation.

> Please indicate if you'd let me ask you some additional questions by
> email. Please indicate if you do not mind information you disclosed
> being attributed to you in publications resulting from this
> research. Thank you very much for your time!

sure, you can email me directly.  although as a mostly generic user i
don't know how much help i'll be.
-- 
 (__) Doug Alcorn (mailto:doug@lathi.net http://www.lathi.net)
 oo / PGP 02B3 1E26 BCF2 9AAF 93F1  61D7 450C B264 3E63 D543
 |_/  If you're a capitalist and you have the best goods and they're
      free, you don't have to proselytize, you just have to wait. 

anatomy of Gnus as a project and as a community

[Michael Totschnig]

Hello,

in the course of my Ph.D. in communication studies, I have been
recently involved in a research project about the free software
movement. Since Gnus is probably the software I spend most time with,
I decided to take Gnus as the object of my contribution to this
project. What I would like to do, is write a sort of anatomy of Gnus
as a project. Particularly I aim at  

- understanding how development and use interact;
- describing how using Gnus differs from using other MUAs and news-readers;
- describing the nature of the community of Gnus' users and developers;
- describing the infrastructure sustaining this community, the material
  and informational configurations that are needed for Gnus being
  developed, maintained, distributed, installed, administered,
  configured and used,
- understanding how the knowledge inscribed in, and associated with
  Gnus is distributed.

In my methodology I intend to combine an analysis of the exchanges on
the gnus newsgroups, an interview with Lars (who kindly agreed to answer
by email and face-to-face recently when he came to Montreal), a
description of the workings of Gnus, and a survey of Gnus' users and
developers. This last item is the object of this posting.

I want to ask you to answer the survey attached below, and to return it to
me by email. The results of my research will be published primarily in
French, but I will at least write a synthesis in English and present
it to the Gnus community. I will cite information you disclose in
this survey only anonymously, except if you explicitly give me
authorisation do do otherwise. Any code fragments you might provide
however will be attributed to you, except if you explicitly wish
otherwise. 

If you have any comments and suggestions about the survey, I'd be very
interested in hearing about them, too. I am interested in the answers
from novice users as well as from long term developers. If you know
any Gnus users who do not read the gnus newsgroups, feel free to
forward this message to them.

Many thanks in advance for your effort! Any answer I receive before 5
of August 2001 will be taken into account.

Regards,

Michael

Survey: Gnus, anatomy of a free software project
================================================
Michael Totschnig
20 july 2001

0) statistics (optional)

0.1) your age

0.2) your sex

0.3) your profession

0.4) your country

1) usage
 
1.1) Which version of Gnus do you use, which version of Emacs, on what
     operating system

1.2) Do you use Gnus on your own computer, or on a system controlled and
     administered by an institution?

1.3) For how long have you been using Gnus?

1.4) In what context did you hear about Gnus the first time?

1.5) How would you describe the original incentive for starting to use
     Gnus?

1.6) Is Gnus your only mail user agent (MUA) / news-reader? If no,
     which others do you use?
 
1.7) How often did you upgrade to a new version of Gnus until today?

1.8) how much time do you spend using Gnus (absolute and relative to
     whole time spent working on computers)?

1.9) What are the features of Gnus you appreciate most?

1.10) What are the aspects of Gnus you dislike?

1.11) Has using Gnus an influence on the form or content of messages
      you send?

1.12) Has using Gnus an influence on your relationship with the
      persons or groups with whom you communicate by email or news? 

1.13) What are the most important impacts of using Gnus on your work
      practices (leisure practices)?

1.14) Did using Gnus change the way you perceive electronic mail and
      Usenet (or any other systems you are using Gnus for)?

1.15) How is your use of Gnus integrated with other applications in your
      computing environment?

1.16) customisation:

1.16.1) How much time do you spend on configuring Gnus?

1.16.2) What is the size of your .gnus.el file? 
	Is your .gnus.el file publicly accessible?
	Would you be willing to attach it to your answer 
	(after editing it to delete personal information)?

1.16.3) What in your way of using Gnus differs most from the default
	setting?

1.16.4) To what degree does your way of using Gnus realize the way an
	ideal MUA/news-reader should work for you?

1.16.5) To what degree do you see Gnus primarily as a tool helping you
	to do your work and to communicate, or as a toy to experiment with?

  
2) development

2.1) would you say that you have been "programming" Gnus?
     If yes, has the result been kept for your own use, posted
     publicly, or integrated in the official release? 

2.2) Do you actively play a role in the Gnus community, for example as
     active contributor (with CVS write access), by occasionally
     submitting bug reports, contributing to discussions about
     features and problems, submitting patches, helping users, or
     maintaining other resources?

2.3) If you contribute to Gnus on a regular basis, how much time do you
     invest per week in these tasks?

2.4) Can you describe you motivations for engaging in these tasks?

2.5) Name some of your contributions to the Gnus community, that you
     consider are most relevant for other users?

2.6) With how much of Gnus' source code are you approximately familiar?

2.7) Is your engagement for Gnus acknowledged and/or recompensed by your
     family, your school, your employer, or any other institution?

3) knowledge

3.1) How would you describe the knowledge you had to acquire in order to
     use Gnus, can you describe how this knowledge evolved, from what
     sources it was built?

3.2) How often in the course of using Gnus are you confronted with
     situations where you have to look for information before succeeding to
     do what you want? Can you describe one such situation?

3.3) Did you apply the knowledge you gained from studying the workings
     of Gnus and from using it in other contexts? Can you describe one such
     context and the kind of knowledge you applied?


4) community

4.1) Do you conceive of the users and developers of Gnus as one
     community, two different communities, no community at all?

4.2) How would you qualify this community (these communities)?

4.3) How would you describe the relation between users and developers? 

4.4) What would be the values shared by this community (these communities)? 

4.5) What is the place of the Gnus community with respect to wider 
     online communities (Emacs, free software, Usenet, Internet)? 

4.6) Can you think of any links between these communities and offline
     institutions or communities?

5) infrastructure

5.1) Which of the following resources do you use? Specify how often, and
     give any commentary you consider important about how they affect the
     way you use Gnus:
     gnus.emacs.gnus
     gnus.ding
     www.gnus.org
     my.gnus.org
     CVS 
     others

Please indicate if you'd let me ask you some additional questions by
email. Please indicate if you do not mind information you disclosed
being attributed to you in publications resulting from this
research. Thank you very much for your time!