The evolution of the principles of motivation and stimulation in the development of information systems and other high-tech products is developing. In addition to the classic ones, i.e. purely monetary-capitalist forms, alternative forms have long been present and are becoming increasingly popular. Half a century ago, the giant IBM, as part of its "Share" program, called for the gratuitous exchange of applications for its mainframes developed by third-party programmers (not for charitable purposes, but this does not change the essence of the program).
Today: social entrepreneurship, crowdsourcing, “We write code together” (“Social Coding”, GitHub and other social networks for developers), various forms of licensing freeware Open Source projects, exchanges of ideas and free exchange of knowledge, technologies, programs.
A new interaction format "Social labor and open design" and the concept of its information resource (website) are proposed. We meet a new start-up (if it is really new). The formula of the proposed approach: networking, co-working, open innovation, co-creation, rowdsourcing, rowdfunding, scientific organization of labor (NOT), standardization and unification, typification of solutions, activity and non-financial motivation, free exchange of experience and best practices copyleft, Open Source, freeware and "all-all-all".
1 Environment and scope
Consider the formats: charity, classic business, socially responsible business (classic entrepreneurship with charity), social entrepreneurship (socially oriented entrepreneurship).
With business and charity - it is very clear.
A socially responsible business is based on a rough and not always true (there are exceptions), but an extremely clear example: when an oligarch, having robbed the population of his city (country), ennobled a small city square, first, of course, having bought himself a couple of castles and luxury yachts, a sports team and so on.
Or he created a charitable foundation (perhaps in order to optimize the taxes of his business).
Social entrepreneurship is, as a rule, a “subsidized business” focused on solving the problems of socially unprotected residents: orphans, large families, pensioners, and the disabled.
Despite the fact that "socially oriented entrepreneurship" primarily professes charity, and secondarily generates income, large Russian social entrepreneurship funds were also created with the funds (endowment) of the oligarchs. Social entrepreneurship is often distinguished from charity by being self-financed, so in general, it is also a business (entrepreneur = businessman).
Some on Habré claim that
You can also see examples of projects there.
Social Labor and Open Design, or STOP, has a slightly different philosophy. This format is for those who are not only ready to help others, but also want to organize their activities and the activities of those around them (of the whole society) as efficiently as possible.
This project is aimed at obtaining maximum efficiency in education and production through teamwork (collectivization), open design (public project management), standardization and unification of design solutions, development of concepts and building universal basic platforms based on them, replication of standard projects and borrowing best solutions (practices) instead of constantly “reinventing the wheel”, i.e. reusing the work of others.
At the initial stage of this movement, it is supposed to conduct development on a voluntary basis: really socially useful deeds usually involve social principles. The movement is based on the approaches:
x-working (co-working, etc.), x - sourcing (crowdsourcing, etc.), involving both experts - altruists (professional developers) and novice specialists (students) in projects, i.e. "Mass character and skill - the motto ...". An important component is the scientific organization of labor.
The concept of "Social Labor and Open Design" - can be applied to various areas of public life, but here we will limit ourselves to the field of IT. Therefore, the STOP branch in relation to IT (automation) is further called STOPIT: STOP project on IT topics. Although this is a conditional division, because, for example, management technologies for project and process management are considered to be “IT”, but they are used far from only in automation projects.
There are similar forms, for example, is a public educational project aimed at developing cooperation between the non-profit sector and IT professionals.
However, STOPIT - focuses on any IT-oriented "supply and demand". STOPIT is not only an educational project, it is not only “collaboration between the non-profit sector and IT specialists” and other “not only”.
Social work and open design is the IT greenhouse of a new type of social entrepreneurship, where the term "entrepreneurship" is better replaced by "activities".
2 The concept of "Social work and open design" and motivation
Roles
The STOPIT IT greenhouse concept includes three roles: Customer, Intermediary, Contractor. The customer forms the “demand”, or rather, asks and formalizes “what needs to be done”. The customer is any company or individual who wants to solve a specific problem facing him. In this case, something to automate.
The Contractor forms an "offer", i.e. notifies "what he is ready to do". The Contractor is a company, a group of developers or just a developer who is ready in the general case - "on a voluntary basis" (free of charge) to solve a problem for the Customer.
An intermediary is a subject that connects “demand” and “supply” and controls the solution of the problem, satisfaction of both the Customer and the Contractor. The satisfaction of the Contractor himself is also important, because we are talking in the general case about the work "on a voluntary basis". Instead of the principle: “Money for the work is received, but the grass does not grow there”, in this case, the factor begins to work, in which the Contractor is interested in introducing his product through non-financial motivation. And this is sometimes "more expensive than money."
By the way, the STOPIT technology easily overcomes another misfortune of the modern IT structure: if the Customer is satisfied, then the implementation project is considered successful despite the objective parameters of the compliance of the design solution with the assigned task. In our case, public control will reveal such a situation, and the public assessment of the success of the implementation project will not be based on the popular principle “you don’t need to think about the quality of the project if you and the Customer sleep together with the same salad”, but on the invoice.
2.1 Customer motivation
You always want to get for free or "almost free" - an automation system for which there is no money or "it is not clear which one to choose", because. “every seller praises his product” (even if the product is useless). For many, the price tag for IT projects has become unbearable. Where can I get simple standard solutions of the Open Source freeware class and an inexpensive resource for their implementation and subsequent maintenance?
Sometimes one-time tasks are required or the task is to check “whether it is necessary”, “how it works in principle”. For example, the company does not have a project office, but I want to understand how the project would go if it had one. On a voluntary basis, an "external project manager" (project administrator), for example, a student or a freelancer, is involved.
As part of the STOPIT concept, the Customer receives a ready-made solution to his problem with source code, a free license, the possibility of replication, a conceptual study of the solution architecture, and documented code. As part of the implementation discussion, he was able to see alternative solutions and independently make a choice (agree with the choice).
It is hoped that the proposed approach will provoke the following situation: if several organizations need to solve a similar problem (both need the same product), then it is advisable to make joint efforts to develop a standard solution (or platform) and solve the problem on its basis, i.e. they took it together, made a basic solution together, and then customized each general approach for themselves (adapted).
A variation of crowdfunding is possible or just a variant of joint work on one task according to the principles: “one head is good, but two are better” or through forced cooperation like: I will help you with your project, and you will help me with mine, because you have competencies in mine, and I have in your project.
A set of requirements is presented to the Customer, but so far we are not considering them (mainly the requirement to disclose the implementation history, open maintenance of a bug tracker, etc.).
2.2 Motivation of the Contractor
The basic class of Performers, in any case, at the beginning of the development of the STOPIT direction, is supposed to be student project groups. It is important for a student: to work on a real practical problem, to gain practical experience, to see that his achievements did not go to the wastebasket, but are actually used (exploited and benefit people).
Perhaps it is important for a student to draw up a work book (to record the length of service), to include real projects in his portfolio (“success story” right from the first year of the university), etc.
Perhaps a freelancer wants to include the implementation of this particular project (this company) in his portfolio and is ready to work for free.
If necessary, the Intermediary can organize operational control or allocate an experienced mentor to ensure a higher quality of problem solving by novice designers. At the same time, the motive of a student or the same freelancer can be based solely on work on a project with the participation of a “well-known guru” assigned to this project.
Thus, Executors are not necessarily altruists and philanthropists, although professional developers will more likely fall under this definition. It is advisable to use the latter within STOPIT as a team of mentors (consultants) or chief designers, or to involve them in the implementation of “exemplary projects” that raise the image of a specific STOPIT project site.
Universities participating in STOPIT will be able to better understand the real problems that their graduates will have to solve. The Performers themselves can be subsequently hired to accompany their own developments (programs). The Fund can organize competitions and encourage the most active Performers (Universities), including through a special donation fund from the Customers themselves, who donate "for joy" from a free, but extremely effective tool (program) for them.
In general, for a student, “happiness No. 1” is when he solves practical problems already at the institute, i.e. not fictitious, but real (even if he does not complete them or does only a piece of a big task). “Happiness No. 2” - when his project really came in handy in life (was implemented), i.e. his work "was not thrown into the trash can" immediately after defending the project. And if in addition to this there will be a small material motivation?
And not necessarily in cash: the incentive fund may consist of vacancies for internships, studies (training), other prepaid educational or non-educational services.
The pure position of "altruist-philanthropist" should also find itself in STOPIT. An egoist for himself, an altruist for people. A misanthrope is a misanthrope, a philanthropist is a philanthropist. An altruist and a philanthropist act for the benefit of society, putting other people's interests above their own. Both love humanity and help it. This is a powerful resource, but has not yet found itself in large IT projects.
2.3 Project student teams are the hope of the national scientific and technological revolution
I emphasize that not only project student teams are considered as Executors for STOPIT projects, but special hope is placed on them for the scientific and technological revolution (STR). The existing isolation of the educational process from production, the lack of understanding by the teaching staff of the specific practical tasks of production is the misfortune of modern domestic education. In the USSR, for a "deeper immersion" of students in production, they came up with basic departments of educational institutes at enterprises and research institutes.
Today, some still remain, but the expected “Big Result” did not and still does not exist.
By “Big Result” I mean something “open and big, i.e. socially useful on a planetary scale. Similar to Western institutions, for example, the display server “X windows system”, developed in 1984 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the whole direction of MIT licensing.
Our students are not capable of such tricks:
It may be necessary to change the very concept of higher education, for example, to remake it in a Western manner: to combine educational institutions with research centers. From here, a reproach may follow that all the achievements of MIT and the like should be attributed to innovation centers at institutes, but in any case, our research institutes cannot boast of anything like that.
In such a concept, STOPIT can be considered as a “temporary patch” until the state “wakes up” and remembers the need to revive higher education.
STOPIT can serve as a springboard for NTR. In any case, revolutions - both in education and in approaches to the design and implementation of automation systems: open design, borrowing, standardization-unification, the formation of open standards for building systems, system architectures, frameworks, etc.
In any case, laboratory research and practical skills, and even more so successful (and even “not very”) implementations, right from the first courses, are the key to quality education.
In the meantime, we have to read this with sadness:
I am a student of the 2nd year of the university, I study in the specialty Applied Mathematics and Informatics, and quite successfully, I receive an increased scholarship. But, one fine day, I realized that what I was taught was starting to weigh me down and becoming, subjectively of course, more and more dull and monotonous. A little later, an idea arose, why not implement some of your own projects, get fame and money (the latter is doubtful of course). But. I don’t know if I’m the only one with such a problem, at least I didn’t find almost anything on the Internet, but I can’t decide what exactly I will do. The department shrugged it off, saying the research...
Of course, I'm not asking for ready-made ideas, I'm asking for an answer to the question: how can I come to this myself?
Suggestion for teachers: Why should IT students be “burdened” with unrealistic (fictitious) tasks? Maybe you need to ask your friends what IT projects are going on at their enterprise, what needs to be done, what task to solve. Next, break the task into parts and offer it to the whole group in the form of graduation term papers with “cutting” tasks according to the decomposition. The resulting solution can be shown to friends: maybe they will refuse SAPSAS, etc. and choose student work on the Open Source copyleft engine?
For example, the implementation of "SAPSAS, etc." in some cases, it can be on the principle of "from a cannon to sparrows", i.e. a simpler solution would be suitable for solving the problem, in addition, the economic efficiency of introducing such monsters is almost always negative: therefore, often feasibility studies of such implementations are not made at all, much less published.
Even if your friends say “no”, then just publish your solution and a comparison with a competing product - perhaps there will be someone who will choose your solution, if it is, of course, competitive. All this can be done without the STOPIT platform.
2.4 Selected success factors
The key motion vector should be based on the following:
A) open. Programs should be open source and well documented. At the same time, in addition to documenting the code, it should contain documentation of the logic (algorithm), preferably in one of the graphical notations (BPMN, EPC, UML, etc.). "Open" - there is a source code and it does not matter in which environment the project was created and what language is used: Visual Basic or Java.
B) Free. Many people want to do something socially useful and significant, open and replicable (multi-useful): so that it will be useful to many and they, at least, said Thank you very much for it.
Although some want "much more" than just "Thank you", for example, by specifying the license "THE BURGER-WARE LICENSE" directly in their program code (tag "sarcasm"):
###################
Sub insertPicture(...
' THE BURGER-WARE LICENSE (Revision 42):
' <[email protected]> wrote this code. As long as you retain this notice you
' can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think
' this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a burger in return. 😉 xxx
###################
The license "THE BURGER-WARE LICENSE" - can become the hallmark of the STOPIT project. (humorware) big: Beerware, Pizzaware…
C) Select the bulk tasks first. The priority should be tasks that have not a specific, but a general application: “tasks of mass demand”, solved through a universal open platform (possibly with subsequent customization if necessary).
D) Look “widely” and make not only programs, but also standards: standardization and development of an industry standard solution. Priority should be given to solutions (programs, approaches), which, in addition to the implementation example, contain elements of standardization. For example, the Contractor offers a typical solution and shows how to adapt it to a specific task. As a result, the emphasis is on mass circulation (multiple repetition based on a standard solution - as an alternative to "reinventing the wheel"). Standardization, unification and exchange of experience as opposed to: "closed and unique solution" ("keep the customer on the hook"), forcing a single software solution provider (vendor).
2.5 Role of the Facilitator
The role of the Intermediary - the organizer (operator) of a separate STOPIT site is as follows (by blocks).
Project office: formation of a portfolio of orders and groups of performers (resource pool). Collection of orders, formation of a resource of Performers. Project status control (Initiation, Development, etc.).
Business analyst. Primary business analysis. Primary study of tasks, an attempt to formulate a general task that would be of interest to a wider range of customers.
Guarantee. Guaranteed fulfillment of the terms of the contract. For example, the Contractor can set the condition for receiving an act on the implementation of the system (in case of successful implementation) or posting on the website of the company where his solution was implemented, articles (news with the name of the Contractor) about the implementation (it doesn’t matter what content: positive or critical).
The Guarantor can, on the basis of the principle of “alienation of the developer from his product”, guarantee the Customer that he will always find a support team for this project, for example, if the Contractor refuses to support his own implementation or from the implementation of his own software product.
There are many other moments (details), for example, hiding the name of the Customer's company at the first stages of design. This is necessary so that spam from competitors' offers does not rain down on the Customer - according to an alternative system “for money” (with shouts: “free cheese is only in a mousetrap”). If the Customer is ready to pay a symbolic amount to the Contractor, then the Intermediary acts as an intermediary in mutual settlements. It is advisable to specify the details in the charter of a specific project or the charter of a specific STOPIT site.
PR. Advertising activities: letters to administrations and student forums, mass media - initiation and involvement in the project, promotion on the Internet.
OTK. Implementation control. The intermediary can undertake preliminary tests of the implemented system for individual projects. After implementation, organize monitoring of the process and conduct an audit.
The Mediator can manage the Mentors, i.e. if there is a resource - experts, connect them to the project for mentoring.
The Intermediary may organize competitions, awards, etc. to increase the motivation of the Contractors. Much more can be added: this is determined by the capabilities (resources) of the Intermediary.
2.6 Some effects of the implementation of the proposed project
To engage students in solving real applied problems. Ideally (in the future) - in our institutions to introduce a Western approach, when groups of students create an industrial standard, an open system platform (framework), widely used to build final industrial systems.
Raise the level of standardization of information systems development: standard design, standard solutions, development of a single conceptual solution and building several implementations on its basis, for example, on different CMS, DMS, wiki engines, etc. implement the standard for building such and such a system, i.e. formation of industrial standards for solving an applied problem.
Create platforms that combine supply and demand, and the implementation of the task will be either mediocre or at a symbolic price, as well as various incentive options, for example, when a company takes on practice a winning student for technical support of his own program with or without salary payment (on practice).
In the future, it is possible to create next-generation platforms based on the principles of openness, standardization, crowdfunding, but when only the project itself is paid for, and its replication is donated to society, i.e. the public including any company and individual can enjoy free of charge. At the same time, the company on the trading floor will determine for itself what it needs first of all and to whom to give this project (development “for money”).
3 "Three pillars" of Social work and open design
A) Collaboration technologies
(in relation to STOPIT)
Net - network + work - work. This is a social and professional activity aimed at building trusting and long-term relationships with people and providing mutual assistance with the help of a circle of friends, acquaintances (including acquaintances through social networks or professional forums), colleagues.
Networking is the basis for establishing friendships and business relationships with new people (partners). The essence of networking is the formation of a social circle and the desire to discuss one's own problems with others, to offer one's services (advice, consultations in forums). All social networks are based on it.
It is important to believe in Networking and not be afraid to ask others for solutions, ask them to solve your problem, and also offer their knowledge and help to others.
In a broad sense - an approach to organizing the work of people with different employment in a common space; in the narrow one - a similar space, a collective (distributed) office, in our case, the STOP site. This is an infrastructure organization for joint work under STOPIT projects.
Someday, STOPIT physical coworking spaces may appear, but so far this is only a STOPIT virtual platform (Internet resource). We will not only share experience and ideas with everyone, which will increase productivity and help in finding non-trivial solutions to problems, but also work on a single platform using common tools (for example, design systems, emulators, virtual test benches).
So far, the topic of STOPIT virtual workspaces has not been worked out, but it will include at least virtual offices (remote office workstations, including word excel, etc. or their analogues, facts, communication, etc.), as well as virtual IT laboratories and stands "shared" for experiments and tests (general-use virtual machines with specialized software, VM images with pre-installed frameworks, etc.).
Upon completion of each project, its virtual booth will be archived and made available for re-deployment to any STOPIT participant, i.e. not only working and operational documentation for the project will be available, but also the working information system itself.
STOPIT takes a lot from crowdsourcing: in fact, projects are outsourced to the public, an open call to the public is formed, in which the organization requests (asks) solutions from the “crowd”.
Open design technologies, public project management (actually like on the program “What, where, when”), rowdsourcing, co-creation, open innovation are well-known terms that are easy to find on the Internet, for example, .
B) Scientific organization of labor
NOT - as a process of improving the organization of labor based on the achievements of science and best practices - is a very broad concept. In the general case, these are mechanization and automation, ergonomics, rationing, time management and a host of other things.
We will limit the directions:
- free exchange of knowledge and experience;
- unification and standardization;
- wide use of Best Practices, both industry-specific and Best Management Practices.
- Unification and standardization, borrowing what has already been done, a reference point for standard solutions.
No need to reinvent the wheel every time, you just need to repeat it. If we are solving a problem, then it is desirable to offer a solution that will be universal and will allow solving similar problems (“two birds with one stone”).
best practices. Examples of Industry Best Practices, e.g. from IT: ITSM, ITIL, COBIT. Examples of Best Management Practices: from the project it is PMBOK-PRINCE; BOK and from the field of systems software engineering; BIZBOK BABOK, as well as numerous lean-shaped techniques for "all occasions".
It is important to understand here that the goal is not to “choose the best of the many Best Practices” (many alternative approaches). It is proposed not to invent new approaches to project management, new ways of designing systems, etc., but first read Best Practice and borrow from them if possible. Although someday one of the STOPIT projects I hope will be the reworking of the existing "famous" Best Practice or the creation of a new one, for example, BOK on the STOPIT project itself.
C) Principles of an active life position
IT-pioneers, activists, volunteers, altruists and "everything-everything-everything" who want to do something useful: both "very" socially useful (scale-useful), and useful only for a small company, i.e. someone to automate something pro bono.
For social entrepreneurs, altruists and philanthropists, this is a social responsibility in terms of making IT projects more accessible, replicable and mass, the desire to involve a large number of participants in the development of information systems, to make domestic systems better and not inferior to Western ones. Approximately, as "Mass character and skill - the motto of Soviet sports", i.e. "Mass character and craftsmanship is the motto of the domestic it-structure."
All it takes, under the guidance of a small number of experienced comrades, is to send a large army of “hungry for knowledge and its application in practice” students and everyone (beginning engineers and programmers) to perform practical tasks with direct implementation and subsequent development support. Development (product) implies the above principles: openness, universality of application, standardization of the solution, including the development of the concept (ontology), free replication (copyleft).
Total
Of course, a lucky IT student in the senior years of the institute can get an internship at a large IT company, there are beautiful stories about students, especially Western ones, for example, Stanford (K. Systrom, M. Zuckerberg), there are domestic sites for start-ups, hackathons, student contests like “People need you”, job fairs, youth forums like BreakPoint, social entrepreneurship foundations (“Rybakov” and others), projects like “Preactum”, contests, for example, the Article contest “Social entrepreneurship through the eyes of students”, “Project 5-100” and “five”, dozens, maybe hundreds of similar ones, but all this did not provide a revolutionary effect in our country: neither a revolution in business, nor in education, nor a scientific and technological revolution. Domestic education, science and production are degrading, and with giant strides. Radical methods are needed to change the situation. Radical and really effective measures "from above" were not and are not.
It remains to try "from below" and use the enthusiasm and activity of those who are not indifferent.
Is the proposed format of the IT greenhouse of a new type of social entrepreneurship capable of doing this: Social work and open design? The answer can only be given by trying it in action.
If you are interested in the idea - create your own STOP - resource: the proposed concept is distributed under Copyleft - license "THE BURGER-WARE LICENSE". Every university would benefit from such a platform. See you at your site STOPIT.
Source: habr.com