Communication in support of software sharing and collaborative development

To be successful, software which is shared among several users requires a means of reporting trouble and receiving help. This is even more critical in the case of a collaborative software development effort. The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) collaboration uses the Internet as its major communication medium. In addition to conventional electronic mail and occasional use of MBONE teleconferencing a distributed listserver system is used to announce releases, ask for aid, announce the discovery and disposal of bugs, and to converse generally about the future development directions of EPICS tools and methods. The EPICS listservers are divided into several subject categories, and since all questions, answers, and announcements are archived for future reference, some statistics can be gleaned from these records. Such statistics and information from the collaborators show that they make use of this system and find it helpful. As a manager, I have found that the system gives reassuring evidence that the collaboration is alive, responsive to calls for aid, and helpful even to those not actively participating in the question and answer activity