Improve your online relationships with a dose of empathy

Empathy provides the crucial bridge that allows for the understanding of situations different than your own. That sense of community fosters open source because community implies inclusiveness and connectivity, two hallmarks of the open source mindset.

Martin Buber wrote “Ich und Du,” translated as “I and Thou,” which suggests that we, as humans, address objects in one of two ways: as an “it,” an object that exists objectively, which is used or experienced, or as a “thou,” or “you,” in which case the object exists in the context of relationship.  

by Joseph Ottinger