Design has played an increasingly important role in the development of open source software. Groups such as Open Source Design have discussed and shared new approaches for facilitating design contribution and including designers as core contributors. However, even with this new interest, many designers still have to overcome many practical barriers to contribution given the very different nature of design contributions compared to that of code. In this talk, I will discuss how Open@RIT has utilized design methodologies to work with open source projects to not only better facilitate maintenance of open source projects, but also to better allow for design contributions through other pathways. You can expect to hear about methods for funding and executing this type of work, attitudes and initiatives that we have found most helpful, and stories from our own experience to help you guide yours.
Speakers: Mike Nolan