The mission statement by Libre food pantry is very similar to my personal life goals. I as well hope to use my computer science knowledge and skills I have obtained towards the betterment of not just humans, but also human society, our standard of living, environment, and planet earth in general.

There is also a false belief among the common masses that people in computer science just have to write their part of code and move on. Therefore, they do not work well with other people or just don’t have to work with other people. Mission statement of Libre food pantry states right from the start that they are a “vibrant, welcoming community of clients, users, and developers” working together as an unit and team to achieve their goals.

From the blog CS@worcester – Towards Tech by murtazan and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

After reading several sections on the LibreFoodPantry website, I found the Code of Conduct to be rather useful. It provides a very clear picture of what is expected and how things are handled in a simple, straightforward way. The page explains in detail what the goal is, what the community standards are, where they apply, how they are enforced, and how the violations are handled. I think it’s very important to understand and be familiar with the culture, values, and standards of the community before being a contributing member. I will try to visit this section every once in awhile to remind myself of what values and practices I should uphold when working on this project.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Fadi Akram by Fadi Akram and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

When reading through the LibreFoodPantry main page looking at the values, specifically the FOSSims, I saw something that intrigued which was Linus’s law and the saying “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”. This phrase indicates that you should not shy away from help when encountering bugs so that they can be fixed easier and quicker and to not end up like those who just bang their head on the wall for hours on end stuck. I chose this since I can relate to have been typically working on fixing bugs myself and spend hours stuck instead of seeking help in certain situations. This is useful to think about and to hopefully convince other people to seek help.

From the blog CS@Worcester – kbcoding by kennybui986 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Something from the LibreFoodPantry’s website that I found interesting was the mission that is listed. This page states that LibreFoodPantry’s mission is to “expand a community of students and faculty across multiple institutions who believe software can be used to help society.” I really like that this mission is centered around bettering our community. I think a lot of modern software projects are focused on comercialization and proffit, and I don’t like that. A software can be a very powerful tool for any cause; I believe that softwares should be designed to help people. I appreciate the oppurtinity to work on a project that has a real impact on the community.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Ciampa's Computer Science Blog by robiciampa and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

After reviewing and reading over the LibreFoodPantry’s main page I found a specific topic that settled a concern that I had about working on an open source project like this. In it’s values page it presents a list of ideals titled FOSSisms, where I found a particular one that I wasn’t expecting. This FOSSism covers how a student like I should handle working on the project and worrying about making mistakes or asking permission to try working with anything. I know that this semester I’ll have tasks already set aside that I need to work on but actually doing it and making a mistake that could break a part of the software itself was overly present on my mind. This FOSSism reassured me that I shouldn’t be too concerned about making that mistake and rather to ask for forgiveness instead of first asking for permission.

From the blog CS@Worcester – A Boolean Not An Or by Julion DeVincentis and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

One thing that I noticed when reading over the LibreFoodPantry code of conduct was how seriously online harassment is taken. I liked how the pantry is a place where people can feel safe to contribute to the project without fear of harassment. The enforcement policy seems extremely fair with many chances for corrective action to be taken.

The pantry enforces their code of conduct across multiple websites and does not tolerate harassment on any platform, including the LibreFoodPantry discord server. I especially like this since there are many organizations who only care about their own platform and do not monitor off-site harassment. This makes LibreFoodPantry a more welcoming environment for all developers and users.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Ryan Blog by rtrembley and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The section that I choose to focus on is the Code of Conduct. While reading through each section from the LibreFoodPantry website, what stook out to me which sometimes is not clear on most apps, is the Guidelines section. The apps policies, if violated one of the community standards, will be temporarily ban the user allowing them to correct their actions. If the user continues to violate the community standards they will then be permanently banned. What I found interesting or rather curious about was whether the app notifies the user of the violation they made? And if so, how many violations are there before permanently banned? I think adding that additional information leaves little wiggle room for the user to claim they were not notified.

From the blog CS@Worcester – The Dive by gonzalezwsu22 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry is built to serve a wide range of communities and academic institutions. Examining each area helps me comprehend how this project was designed to function and all of the values linked with it. The Mission Statement, Values, which includes a Code of Conduct, Agile values and principles, and FOSSisms, for example. Licensing, Acknowledgements, the Coordinating Committee, and other topics are covered. For me, the Code of Conduct is one of the most significant topics in the reading because it discusses all of the relevant facts that might easily occur during online contact, such as harassment and discrimination. Because it governs how humans interact on the internet, computer ethics is vital.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Site Title by proctech21 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.