open source leaders

[angustia]

there's anybody that knows an open source project with at least one leader not being programmer or informatic engineer (doesn't write code)?

i guess he must know about computers, but i wonder if a musician can start a os project without need of learn to prog.




thanx.

[madcompnerd]

I don't really know of any, many leaders are highly political, but they tend to be IT types.
Most OSS projects are about getting stuff done, not really about conceptual and user design stuff as much I think. I think it's kind of needed to understand some programming, at least at a conceptual level, to lead a project.
Also, project lead is usual synonomous with maintainer...

[angustia]

Originally posted by madcompnerd
I think it's kind of needed to understand some programming, at least at a conceptual level, to lead a project.
Also, project lead is usual synonomous with maintainer...

Always he/she will end knowing about programming concepts.

I want to know if there is a project, to use as example in a forum.

[DMR]

angustia,

Anyone can start an open source project in the conceptual sense, but in order to see it through you'll obviously need experienced programmers behind you.

With that in mind, are you asking where you can get connected with such people? If so, just elaborate a bit and we can probably point you in the right direction.

[emus]

Lindows (Linspire) doesn't really pass for a truly open source project, but it's the closest thing I can think of.
CEO Michael Robertson's background seems to be in the cognitive sciences though I'm certain he has acquired many computer skills during his various projects.

From http://www.lindowsinc.com/profiles.php


Robertson received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 1990. He completed an undergraduate independent study with renowned Cognitive Scientist Donald Norman. He also interned at the San Diego Supercomputer Center located on the campus of UCSD, which helped solidify his understanding of the Internet and how powerfully it would impact the future of business.

[angustia]

i got the name of Telsa Gwynne.

i'm looking for a case like (hypothetical) a musician who likes a program that helps him in his work, meets a programmer and explains his idea. The musician says what the program must do and how, and writes documentations and tutorials.

This is for a LUG, to show that anyone can colaborate, not only programmers.

[Ludootje]

You don't have to 'lead' the project to colaborate. Many of the documentation writers and translators don't know how to program, but still want to help out with a project.

Also, not all F/OSS projects are programming projects. Here's an example:
The Linux Documentation Project (http://tldp.org/) is, without any doubt, the most known documentation repository, and the persons helping it don't need to know how to program. Sure, they need a webmaster etc, but the people leading it don't need to know how to program. Nor do the contributors. Nor do the admins who maintain the mailing lists.

Idem for magazines and news sites.

[Parcival]

Openoffice is a great project for people to contribute even if they know nothing about programming:

http://www.openoffice.org/contributing.html

[angustia]

Originally posted by Ludootje
You don't have to 'lead' the project to colaborate. Many of the documentation writers and translators don't know how to program, but still want to help out with a project.

think in a case of cartographers (right written?), they need a program for his work, but they can wait for programmers to design it, cause they (cart.) know the formulas, method of working, etc. I know that a non-programmer alone can't lead a proyect but i'm looking examples of people who at least started one and help in its design.

[Ludootje]

Generally what happens then is that a programmer gets hired. With F/OSS projects, typically one person (the project lead) starts the project by coding, then others join in, and only then the project leader *could* stop programming and "simply" lead the project.
It's very hard to start a F/OSS project without code though - chances of your project getting any followers are slim. Haven't encountered a case like you want yet. I do vaguely remember some project(s) which got started by a person talking about such and such idea, and others implementing it - but the person who originally had the idea generally isn't involved with the project then.
It probably does exist though, but good luck finding it.