Catching up on reading while I my wife and I pass some information back and forth to our employers, and I’m just reading this.

I’ve adored Moodle for a very long time despite the care and feeding it requires to maintain a Moodle domain – or, in many ways, because of it. The investment I make to maintain a page, to maintain users on a server, to maintain the assignment base for a class (especially if that class is a physics or an introductory chemistry class that’s heavy on the mathematical problem solving)…on the right day, that’s not work, that’s not even close to it. That’s escapism. I don’t have to deal with people, places, or things. I just have to deal with the interface, with the code, with the mathematics itself. And Moodle maintenance is much friendlier to me than most other LMS maintenance.

So this reminder that the maintenance of a piece of software like Moodle is work to most of the human population is VERY important. And that should impact my perspective on what is “free” about such a thing to others.

On the other hand, I’m pretty well equipped to do things that make implementing a course on Moodle (and, more to the point, implementing the kinds of mathematical and problem-solving practice that will build a student’s skills, perhaps even implementing those in an open fashion) easier on others. Does that inform where I should be focusing my own work and my own contributions to community?

To extend your analogy, if taking care of the puppies is so easy for me, should I offer you all the benefits of the puppies and help eliminate your costs?