TMPDIR is a community for engineers by engineers with a focus on open source, hardware/software product development, and all things related.
This is the place to:
- learn or share what is happening in our industry
- connect with other developers
- discus tools, technology, how to do something, etc.
- get advice
- solve hard problems
- identify and document best practices
The support/discussion communities for the Yoe Distro and Simple IoT projects are also hosted here.
If you want to connect with developers who care about what they are doing, are learners, and are interesting in moving beyond the status quo, this is the place. Individually, we can’t do much without others. In the technology world, we stand on the shoulders of giants.
Why the name TMPDIR? While trying to find a name for this community, the OpenEmbedded variable TMPDIR in the documentation stood out. This seems to fit our industry well. While there are many fundamental and universal truths, much in our industry is changing fast. Technologies come and go. Methodologies are progressing at a rapid pace. Products are continually changing and adapting to new needs. To utilize all that is available today (open source projects, new components, tools, etc), we can benefit from a community of engineers who are willing to share and collaborate.
Why not other forums such as social media, LinkedIn, etc? The reason is simple – we want to build a community where the signal to noise ratio is high, and the distraction factor is low. TMPDIR is NOT the place for recruiters, chit-chat about your personal life, politics, crude jokes/bad language, or other off-topic conversations. Our goal is not to build a community composed of millions of people who want to be entertained and content is reduced to the lowest common denominator. But rather a smaller critical mass who can provide the support needed for engineers to learn, grow, and produce in this age. The goal is not quantity, but quality. How to best accomplish this, we’re not sure yet. But one thing is certain – we need to do things differently than the mainstream. Cal Newport has written several articles about long tail social media which suggest that smaller more focused communities may be more effective than the mainstream platforms. TMPDIR is an intentional community. We want to encourage quality content and relationships, not just connections and posts for the sake of numbers. The people who fit best here have a generous mindset, are willing to share what they know, are humble enough to learn from others, and are confident enough in their abilities that they don’t feel threatened by what they don’t know or understand.
The Discourse platform has proven to be a very effective tool for communities. The weekly summary emails Discourse provides are an optimal way to keep up without being overloaded with interruptions. We are not trying to monopolize and monetize your attention, but create a place where all benefit.
If this all sounds interesting, then please sign Sign Up!
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