[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Bug bounties

Wed Jul 31 15:58:25 EDT 2013

I think we should high light that Dan Wells has helped push cleaning up a
lot of bugs with 2.5 including wishlist ones which as he pointed out is
characteristic of a maturing software project.

I like the idea of the bug squashing being something symbolic but
meaningful.  I don't mind giving out money but nor do I want it to be about
money.

I like the bug squashing idea too.

A big part of all this though is what do the developers think would be a
fun thing that they would rally behind.  A bug squashing day?  Should we
devote some time at the hack-a-way to reviewing long standing bugs and
seeing what can be done about them?  What do you think?

On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 3:46 PM, Kathy Lussier <klussier at masslnc.org> wrote:

>  Hi Rogan, Dan, et al.,
>
>
> Anyway, I think those are valid concerns and concerns I have as well but
> I'd like to see what Kathy comes up with for a proposal.
>
>
> Hmmm...I think what I said was I would be willing to *help* work out the
> details, but I guess I could poke around to see what other projects do and
> start with something bare bones for the community to react to.
>
> One of the reasons I was so quick to volunteer to help on this is because
> I do submit a lot of bugs and don't really have the ability to fix them,
> with the exception of some really, easy tpac bugs. In some cases, the bugs
> are resolved fairly quickly; others are collecting dust, not because the
> community doesn't care about fixing them, but because everyone has limited
> time and usually must address the needs important to their own
> organizations before working on other bugs. I just did a search of
> Launchpad and saw that I have 48 outstanding bugs that have not been
> committed or released, though a few do have code that needs to be tested.
> Since I'm limited in the amount of fixing I can do, I see this as another
> way I can contribute to help get Evergreen bugs resolved.
>
> I also understand some of Dan's concerns and was thinking it might be good
> to reframe this discussion. Maybe we should look at the underlying problem,
> which is the issue of valid bugs that languish in Launchpad, and then
> consider ways that the community can support getting those bugs fixed.
>
> One idea is to go with the bug bounty system, providing some type of
> incentive (monetary or otherwise) to developers who fix bugs of a certain
> age. In thinking about the monetary incentive, I couldn't help but think
> about all the money and staff time that many Evergreen sites (including
> MassLNC) put into new enhancements without giving the same attention to
> long-standing bugs that need to be fixed. Even when the new enhancement has
> gone through thorough testing, it isn't unusual for it to introduce even
> more bugs that then get added to the list of bugs that need to be fixed.
> When Rogan first raised the ideas of bug bounties, I was seeing it as a way
> to provide a little more balance between all of the funding that supports
> new enhancements and funding that supports fixing bugs.
>
> Swag could be another incentive, but, since I anticipate one developer may
> be submitting fixes for several bugs, we might need to do a scale where
> fixing 1-5 bugs gets you a sticker, 10 gets you a t-shirt, and 20 gets you
> a bike. Or maybe we could do something where the person who has submitted
> the most bug fixes during a certain month gets a spotlight on the community
> web site. Incentives can take many forms.
>
> Another idea is one I raised at the June developers meeting regarding an
> Evergreen bug squashing day. I was left with an action item to e-mail the
> list about this idea, but I never followed up on it, partially because of
> other time commitments, but also because Dan Wells has been so effective in
> encouraging developers to review active pullrequests that I wasn't sure it
> was still needed.
>
> However, it might be a good way to encourage contributors to spend one day
> where they can focus on fixing bugs. The idea came from a Koha global bug
> squashing day that was held last May -
> http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/2013-05-10_Global_bug_squashing_day.
> The Koha community even had a scorecard of "number of kittens saved" to
> highlight the contributors who had the most bug fixes, patches reviewed,
> etc. I can't remember all of the categories, and the scorecard doesn't
> appear to be available online anymore. We could designate one day where
> contributors are committed to submitting code to fix bugs, reviewing bugs,
> signing off on the fixes, etc. Koha even provided sandboxes for people who
> do not have access to a testing server, but are interested in testing
> fixes. I think this would be a great way to encourage more people to get
> involved in the process.
>
> I don't think these ideas need to be mutually exclusive of each other.
> Maybe we could organize a bug squashing day sometime after the 2.5 release
> to see how many old bugs can be knocked off before running a test of a bug
> bounty system. Maybe there are other ideas out there for addressing the
> issue of dusty bugs.
>
>
> Kathy
>
>
>
> Kathy Lussier
> Project Coordinator
> Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative(508) 343-0128klussier at masslnc.org
> Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
>
> On 7/31/2013 11:45 AM, Rogan Hamby wrote:
>
> Doing some basic Googling for bug bounties I found mention of Koha
> discussing it at KohaCon 12.  I didn't find mention past that but wether
> they did or didn't implement one their experience may be educational to us.
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 5:48 PM, Dan Scott <dan at coffeecode.net> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 05:35:04PM -0400, Rogan Hamby wrote:
>> > I haven't heard any dissents and at least two in favors of (you and I)
>> so
>> > in the spirit of a meritocracy I would say Kathy that at the least if
>> you
>> > want to come up with a model of how to handle it, go ahead and let's
>> start
>> > poking at the details.
>> >
>> > I won't derail things with my wishlist for accessibility.  :)
>> >
>> > I agree that wishlist bugs shouldn't be on the list.
>>
>>  Okay, I'll offer a conditional dissent then. I worry that the
>> introduction of financial incentives will disrupt the contributor
>> ecology. As soon as money is in the picture, all sorts of interesting
>> side effects can occur.
>>
>> For example, will this act as a disincentive for open communication
>> and collaboration about potential alternatives for fixing a bug (because
>> potential fixers jealously guard their approaches from one another)?
>> Will it reduce the interest of current developers in providing
>> assistance to new contributors? Will it introduce difficulties in trying
>> to divvy up credit for bug fixes? Do reviewers of bug fixes get any
>> share of the cash? Do reporters of bugs who provide reproducible test
>> cases get any share of the cash? Is there any requirement to providing
>> regression tests (to prevent the bug from ever rearing its head again)
>> as part of the bug fix? Will contributors of new functionality bury bugs
>> they know about in the interest of getting paid twice, once for the new
>> functionality, and then later for the bug fixes?
>>
>> My conditional dissent would like some examples of projects where bug
>> bounties have actually worked. The examples that I've seen have focused
>> on reporting security vulnerabilities. If there are a few solid cases
>> out there that can serve as a model for us, then I would turn my dissent
>> into cautious assent.
>>
>> It could be that I've just read one too many Dilbert cartoons...
>>
>
>
>
>  --
>
> Rogan Hamby, MLS, CCNP, MIA
> Managers Headquarters Library and Reference Services,
> York County Library System
>
>  "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to
> suit me."
> -- C.S. Lewis <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1069006.C_S_Lewis>
>
>
>

-- 

Rogan Hamby, MLS, CCNP, MIA
Managers Headquarters Library and Reference Services,
York County Library System

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit
me."
-- C.S. Lewis <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1069006.C_S_Lewis>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://libmail.georgialibraries.org/pipermail/open-ils-general/attachments/20130731/8fa2bde6/attachment.htm>