Here's the routine that helps me contribute to open source software - and it's all centred around breakfast.

Not so long ago I didn't have breakfast - stumbling outta bed, changed into whatever clothing smelled clean and dashing off to the office.

This has changed - now each morning, which eating breakfast I test something.

It might be a build from latest from dev branch on a project.

Or it might be an obscure combination of setups - like using lighttpd instead of apache, or sqlite instead of mysql.

Or it might be a bug somebody else reported on a project

Or it might be a curious error I found in a log file somewhere.

And while waiting for breakfast to settle (damn morning sickness!), I try and get a patch completed. The minimum is to narrow down the cause or provide more info on how to replicate something - and submit it to the project.

In the last month i've been testing laconica - and it's been lovely to find they've accepted my patch into dev branch before i've get off the bus at work.

And then there are hackfests. These usually centre around brunch.

I attend the OLPC hackfest every saturday. They meet at the Southern Cross. I do some OLPC work (usually trying out sugar on a stick), but most of the time I'm getting deeper into a trickier bug or feature request for some other project.

Internet NZ have signed on as a key sponsor of the upcoming Linux & opensource conference (the conference usually known as linux.conf.au)

This is slightly old news, but worth repeating
http://blog.internetnz.net.nz/?p=265

The annual Linux.conf.au conference will be held in January 2010 in Wellington - the second time it has been held in New Zealand. It will bring together local and international open source practitioners who contribute to the Linux operating system and numerous other open source projects. Linux creator Linus Torvalds regularly attends this event.

InternetNZ Executive Director Keith Davidson says open source has played, and continues to play, a key role in achieving InternetNZ’s vision of an open and uncaptureable Internet.

“Every New Zealander that uses the Internet is an open source user. It’s the backbone of almost everything business and government does these days. If you want to get close to the people that have built the core technology of the 21st century, you go to conferences like LCA2010. I’m thrilled it is being held right on our doorstep.”

“It is particularly timely that LCA2010 is being held in Wellington. Government agencies have been caught up in something of a technical monoculture, leading to missed opportunity and detachment from key transformations that the Internet has enabled. Any IT staff in the public sector unfamiliar with open source would get a huge boost talking with technical folk that have enjoyed the freedom of unfettered global collaboration.”

so, i try out a gender specific name on Freenode. in the same channels i'm usually in (mostly open source projects i contribute to)..i've been using the new nick for roughly an hour, and..[17:59] show us your boobs first and then we'll tell yaI call him on his behaviour - but no apology - no nothing. Not a single Op warning. Nothing....Some opensource projects are wonderful (Drupal comes to mind first, followed by the whole KDE in general)