Learn WordPress Content Feedback - Course: Open Source Basics and WordPress

[quitevisible]

Feedback Details

• Content title: Open Source Basics and WordPress
• Content URL: https://learn.wordpress.org/course/open-source-basics-and-wordpress/
• Are you reporting an error (such as outdated information), or providing improvement ideas?: Improvement ideas.

Feedback: Errors/Corrections

• In the course Intro/Synopsis, it might be useful to define, or provide links to an explanation of, the word 'bazaar', which might not be familiar to everyone. I recommend doing the same and linking to background articles on 'Linux' and 'Open Source'.
• The first Lesson starts off with 'Open Source Principle 0". Unless that was intentional with some explanation behind it, I'd suggest re-numbering the OS Principles from 1-4, rather than 0-3.

Aside from that, I did not find any glaring grammatical errors, typos, or broken/dead links that needed correction. However, I do have some suggestions for consideration.

Feedback: Suggestions

• I felt like this material as it is, would be better presented as an informative article, rather than a course.
• IF formatted as a course, integrating the 19 Lessons/Points outlined in the referenced essay (Cathedral and Bazaar) could be the basis.
  • Ideally, there should be some demonstration or explanation of how each point relates or applies to WordPress
  • Official WPorg statements acknowledge the CAB essay philosophies to be foundational to the project's guiding principles. So it would be great to see the 'side-by-side' relationship.
• It was unclear to me how the course author came to select the 4 OS Principles used. There is some correlation to the referenced CAB essay, but even then, the points are out of order.
• Much of the information related to WordPress that comprise the last 3 Lessons can be found on https://wordpress.org/about/ (or links to the same info).

I found the course topic interesting, and believe that with more detailed info, would be valuable for onboarding new WPorg contributors. Perhaps with some restructuring and a rewrite, the course would achieve the desired outcome.

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Feedback Report Checklist:

• [ ] Feedback validated
• [ ] Update proposed
• [ ] Update reviewed
• [ ] Update published

[jonathanbossenger]

@bombaypirate, as the author of this course, do you have time to review this feedback and discuss possible updates?

[bombaypirate]

@jonathanbossenger I think this was made way before learn.wordpress.org, from 2018 I think. An earlier version of this was seen to have an over reliance on the Cathedral and Bazaar book by Eric Raymond. A lot of the changes I ended up making then (an example would be : point on egoless participation) were from the guidance provided by Josepha / Andrea and others.

I doubt I will have time currently to review the feedback or to take action on the course. I do agree the course probably needs a few updates.

[jonathanbossenger]

No problem, thank you @bombaypirate. I will go ahead and review the feedback and propose some changes to the course.

[cpetrauskas]

@quitevisible The 'zero based' numbering of the FSF 'four freedoms' is considered an accepted affectation as the 'zero'th' freedom was added to precede the original three. So, while not essential it seems accepted.

• The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html.en#four-freedoms](The four essential freedoms)

That said, the titles of the lesson chapters don't seem to align well with Stallman's original sequence and meaning.