What every successful open source project needs
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Successful open source projects require purpose, strong communication, and active participation from users and contributors. Key factors for success include creating useful tools, effective documentation, and fostering a welcoming environment for contributions. The document emphasizes the importance of responsiveness and community engagement as essential to sustaining an open source initiative.
What every successful open source project needs
- 2. @spf13 Chief Operator @ Docker Former Chief Developer Advocate @ MongoDB, Author of Hugo, spf13- vim, Cobra, Afero, Viper & more
- 3. Mainframe Era : 60s & 70s • Computer companies sold hardware • Software was free • Software was colloborative • IBM dominates
- 4. The Software Era: 80s - 90s • Software as a business emerged • Software companies sold “bits” • Software was private and proprietary • Microsoft dominates
- 5. The Internet Era: 00s • Internet changes everything • Open source movement gains traction (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) • Tech selling ads, bits, hardware & services • Google Dominates
- 6. The Free Source Era: 10s • Technology companies sell Hardware & Services • Software is becoming free ($$) (Windows 10, OS X, Android, IOS) • Game companies still sell bits • Virtually all software companies are now participating in open source
- 7. Open Source Companies • Redhat $13B • Cloudera $3B • MongoDB $1.6B • Docker $.5B • Hortonworks $1B • Wordpress $1B
- 8. Open Source Companies • Google (Android, Chrome, Docker, Linux) • Apple (Webkit, LLVM) • Facebook (Cassandra, HipHop, Hive, PHP) • IBM (Linux, Eclipse, Docker) • Yahoo (Hadoop, Linux, YUI) • Oracle (Linux, MySQL, Java) • Microsoft (Linux, .net, Docker) • Intel (Linux)
- 9. Open Source is taking over the world
- 12. Successful Open Source Projects Need Purpose
- 13. Why Start a Project ?
- 14. To scratch an itch
- 15. Hugo Static Site Generator in Go (200+ already existed, but none in Go)
- 17. Cobra & Viper CLI commander & Configuration management
- 19. spf13-vim My Personal Vim Configuration… now 100+ contributors
- 20. You’ve thought of a better way to do something
- 21. MongoDB & Docker Changing the way software is built and run
- 22. Successful Open Source Projects Need Communication
- 23. What is Communication • What you say • What you write • What you do • What you build
- 25. Great Writing • Requires time • Requires editing • Requires effort • Requires practice
- 26. Users will have questions • Need to establish a place for them to ask questions • Public is ideal: • Others can respond • Others benefit from the response
- 27. Forums & mailing lists • Google groups ok, but hard to search • Stack Overflow will happen, but not focused • Forums work best, Discourse is pretty good • IRC also works well, but realtime and without integrated search.
- 28. README • Your single most important file • First thing everyone sees • Most projects don’t spend enough time on a readme • Where you convey your purpose & values
- 29. A Good README Vision, concrete examples, installation instructions, etc
- 31. One day at MongoDB a couple years ago we received a nasty bug report...
- 33. Best way to read, leave only the facts
- 38. Now it’s a definitive example on how to respond to trolls
- 40. Successful Open Source Projects Need Users
- 41. You need users • No matter how good a project is, it can’t succeed without users • Unless you tell the world about your project, people will not come • Unnatural behavior for most engineers
- 42. To: Newsgroups: comp.os.inix Subject: What would you like to see most in minix? Summary: small poll for my new operating system Message-ID: <mailto: [email protected] Hello everybody out there using minix — I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386 (486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things). I’ve currently ported bash (1.08) and gcc (1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, and I’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them :-). Linus (mailto: [email protected]) PS. Yes — it’s free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that’s all I have :-(.
- 43. Focus on the User • Success depends on a good user experience • Contributions come from happy users
- 44. User Experience • Starts with installation • What are the first 10 minutes like? • What could turn a user away?
- 46. Successful Open Source Projects Need Contributors
- 47. Contributors are the lifeblood of Open Source
- 48. Why Contribute ?
- 49. Why Contribute • It feels good to give back • Good way to make friends • Great way to make connections • Gain exposure / personal branding
- 51. Why Contribute • Establish actual real life experience • Better than a resume • Demonstrates that you can do more than code
- 52. I’m not a developer • Projects need much more than code • Like saying “I’m not an actor, so I can’t work at a movie studio”
- 54. Answer a question on the mailing list
- 57. Write a tutorial
- 60. Review tickets
- 61. Try to reproduce bugs and add information
- 64. Instead of “This is Wrong”... “How can I help?”
- 65. Prepare • Learn the tools of the trade • Git & Github • Read the Documentation • Familiarize yourself with IRC, forums, & the correct channels
- 66. Take Iniative • Don’t be afraid to try • Open source loves self starters • Open source authors are usually very approachable and open to ideas • Communicate and collaborate as much as possible
- 67. Ask • What can I help with? • I would like to help with X, but would benefit from some guidance, can someone guide me? • If I contributed Y, would that help?
- 68. No matter how slow you go, you will always lap those on the sidelines
- 70. Most projects have very few contributors • You must give if you want to get • Contributors are an investment in the future of the project • Contributors pay back many times what you put in
- 72. Make it Easy to Contribute • Use an “open” open source license (Apache 2.0, MIT, BSD) • Provide contribution guidelines • Provide contribution instructions & tutorials
- 73. Treat Contributors Well • Happier developers will contribute more • The more welcome people feel the more they will help your project
- 74. Be Responsive • Respond to Pull Requests in a timely manner • Provide and contribute to a channel where people can ask questions • Respond to issues quickly
- 75. Invite Contributors • Overcommunicate that contributions are welcome • Ask people to contribute • Ask. Ask. Ask. Invite. Invite. Invite.
- 77. Empower Contributors • When someone shows initative and history of good contributions make them a committer • Resist tempation to control • If you aren’t able to be responsive, appoint more committers
- 78. Teach • Don’t ever say no. • Teach contributors how it can become a yes • Newly empowered contributors contagiously help others
- 79. Docker’s Birthday Open-source-a-thon 18 Cities + Online. Mentorship by Go & Docker. Save Whales. http://docker.party
- 80. We live in an open source world
- 83. Thank You ! Questions ?Icons made by Freepik are licensed by CC BY 3.0 @spf13