I wrote recently about a conversation with Jerm about commit logs, opensource and hiring; Ted chipped in to the debate with a reminder for us to visit code_swarm, a project I’d been aware of but only peripherally. There is much about the project that makes it interesting, even remarkable; one that gives me personal pleasure is the usage of Processing as the visualisation tool.
What Michael Ogawa has done is find better and better ways to visualise the human interactions that take place in software development, particularly community-based development. Many of the lessons we’ve learnt in opensource are made tangible and graspable by all, just by watching what happens. The organic nature of the process is brought out beautifully. Anyone interested in opensource and community-based development would do well to take a look. I think there are applications for the use of codeswarm in many open multisided platforms; as and when we use them I shall keep you posted.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the visualisations created by Michael and his team. Our thanks to them.