One of the fundamental beliefs of the Habari development team is that the community surrounding Habari is more important than the product being produced. As a result, the Habari community is a vibrant, dynamic group of people all using and improving Habari to solve various problems. The community includes full-time web developers, scientists, artists, students, and more. There is no hierarchy or stratification amongst participants, and everyone is empowered to suggest changes and drive innovation.
Habari embraces the meritocracy development model, which rewards people for continued, meaningful contributions. There is no specific metric used to measure such contributions; instead it's an overall appreciation for an individual's participation within, and support of, the greater Habari community: providing insightful answers on the mailing lists, engaging other bloggers exploring and talking about Habari, and helping new user users solve problems in IRC are as valuable as submitting patches and suggesting new features. And as a statement of the Habari developer's belief in the community, the habari-extras code repository is open to anyone who expresses an interest in it.
The habari-extras repository is intended to be the clearinghouse for quality Habari plugins and themes, all maintained collaboratively by the community. The Habari development team wants the entire community to share in the development of Habari, and the habari-extras repository is one small way in which that can occur. Users can get their feet wet working on plugins and themes, and as they gain confidence and ability, and demonstrate a continued commitment to the Habari community, they may be invited to join the Habari Cabal to work directly on the core product.
Unlike a lot of other projects in which plugins and themes are developed and maintained by individuals or small groups, any plugin or theme hosted in the habari-extras repository can be modified by nearly anyone. To get access to make changes to the contents of the repository, one need only explain what their intentions are, and ask for access: there's no complicated application process, there's no requirement to prove one's ability, and there's no limit on which items one can and cannot modify.
You see, the Habari developers believe strongly that the community should be able to scratch its own itches. If a user identifies a problem in a plugin or theme, and that user knows how to fix it, why shouldn't they be permitted to commit the fix directly? If someone has a great idea for a new plugin or theme and would like to share that with the entire Habari community, they should be encouraged to do so, without being required to set up their own version control system, or dedicated web hosting account to share their work! Currently, more than a dozen people from the Habari community have access, in addition to the cabal members, and as you can see from the habari-extras timeline there is a steady flow of activity.
Another benefit to the openness of the habari-extras repository is that folks can work together to tackle hard problems. Someone with an idea for a great plugin or theme can get it started, and as other community members identify shortcomings they can contribute their expertise to those specific parts in which they are interested, without having to manage the whole thing. Incremental updates, all managed by the Subversion version control system, allows the habari-extras repository to be a valuable part of the Habari community!
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