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.

After reading the items linked from the website, I think the FOSSisms is one of the parts that I find interesting. FOSSisms were created to ensure that developers who have never used open source before can be prepared for a culture shock. There are 16 maxims which are about the benefits that open source can bring to users, what circumstances will occur in the process of using open source, and actions or behaviors that a developer should do or behave in accordance with an open source community.

Moreover, I find FOSSisms useful because there are some maxims that I can apply to become more efficient and productive when working on an open source project, such as “It’s not what you know, it what you want to learn”, “give back”, and “show me the code”, etc. Those maxims remind me to always have the right mindset and appropriate behaviors when working in an open source community.

From the blog CS@Worcester – T's CSblog by tyahhhh and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

After reading through the different sections for LibreFoodPantry, I wanted to focus on my post on the section about the organization of LFP because it gave a good outline of how it is divided among the people working on it. The LFP has a coordinating committee that is divided into a few shops, and each shop has at least one team dedicated to it. Professors and instructors that have their class involved are shop managers. The layout of LFP and how the committee and managers work reminded me of how kanban works because of the division of the work and visualization of LFP, with some elements of scrum such as a product owners and usage of user stories, and the shop managers could seem similar to scrum masters, since some of the managers here have classes that they may help and coach.

From the blog Jeffery Neal's Blog by jneal44 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Before taking a look at the LibreFoodPantry user story map, I read through the linked article. I was able to understand the importance of a user story map when it comes to developing a project. I found the section,“Your software has a backbone and a skeleton – and your map shows it,” interesting because it actually makes sense when you look at the user story map. My initial impression on the food pantry project was that it was simple, but after looking at the story map, I realized that there are a lot of moving pieces that are all part of a bigger picture. I think that creating the story map is a good way of laying out all of the ideas of the clients and allows us to visualize/prioritize the features we need to work on.

Links: https://librefoodpantry.org/docs/user-story-map
https://www.jpattonassociates.com/the-new-backlog/

From the blog CS@Worcester – Null Pointer by vrotimmy and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

LibreFoodPantry is an open source software for food pantries with a growing community of developers, clients, and users. Upon perusing the website, I found their values to be particularly interesting, especially their value of FOSSisms. In my opinion, the belief system of FOSS (Free Open Source Software) contradicts the traditional teaching system that one receives throughout their academic career. For instance, a course at a university is typically led by a single professor, of whom the students receive all their direction from. In an Open Source community, the community tends to agree upon the direction in which the project goes. This can be a bit overwhelming for newcomers like myself to become accustomed to.

From the blog CS@Worcester – You have reached the upper bound by cloudtech360 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.