Quick Update: Beta and Beyond
The tough thing thing about unsponsored open-source projects is often that - by necessity - they're left to be completed in one's spare time. For me, Deacon began as a something akin to a personal "20% project" - the analogy being that available time not dedicated to work or school could be spent working on Deacon. But in the final weeks of the final term of graduate school, the volume of such time starts to feel like negative 20%!
Clearly, the last few weeks haven't afforded much time to work on Deacon's beta release, nor will the next few - between work, final exams, preparation of my "mini-thesis" and the celebrations that friends and family have planned. Of course, this period isn't without its downtime - which often finds me making plans or cooking up ideas for Deacon. At this point, I'm planning to push hard toward the Beta in August, after life calms down a bit. This push will include working on a Deacon-powered app - mostly as a means of trying out the library myself - as well as several other enhancements and features.
Once Deacon reaches Beta status, the ball will be in the community's court. Motivation for open-source developers is often derived from adoption, and Deacon is no exception to this rule. Testing, feedback, participation and - ultimately - adoption by developers will drive the level of development that's put into Deacon: basically, "ask and ye shall receive"! Blog comments, bug submissions, feed subscriptions, link-backs and other such digital expressions of interest are the currency of the open-source world - and they're what will keep the Deacon Project going.
