Scale14x Patterns and Practices for Open Source Project Success

Patterns and Practices for Open Source Project Success

stephen r. walli@stephenrwalli

[email protected]

Freeloaders are Necessary


[email protected]

WTFOSS*


[email protected]

* Hat tip to @codepope

Community

We’ve shared software since we’ve written softwareWriting good software is hard work

Princeton

USENIX

SHARE

DECUS

MIT Athena

Free Software FountationBerkeley CSRG

Apache

Linux

EclipseFountation

ASF

2 Stories

Orders

of

magnitude

ROTOR500K LoC500K Lines-‐of-‐Test HarnessRan on Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSDOne script to set environmentOne command to build everythingOne command to test it allMinimal documentation

24 hours later …24 hours later again …

Committer(s)+

Code

Developers

Committers+

Code

Developers

Users

Committers+

Code

How do you increase your user base?(How do you make it easy to install/configure/use the software?)

How do you encourage developers?(How do you make it easy to build/test/experiment?)

How do you make it easy to contribute?(What do you communicate to your community)


Project E

xes

publish

ed

Project Install

Automated

Software Construction ActivitiesProject

BugTracking


Project E

xes

publish

ed

Project Install

AutomatedSoftware Construction Activities

Project

License

FAQs, Ho

wto

Community Development Activities

Project

BugTracking

Forums, Em

ail

A small (2 minute) diversion on licensing ….• Software is protected by copyright law • Whoever wrote the software, owns the copyright• People often give up copyright ownership in employment agreements• There are a few well [understood|accepted] licenses: pick one• These licenses define the most successful collaborations in history• If you care about making money: educate yourself* & hire a lawyer• If you [care|worry] about patents: hire a lawyer• If you publish your project on Github: create the *%$ing LICENSE file

Writers|Artists|Engineers|Architectsdo it. So should you.

*Van Lindberg's Intellectual Property and Open Source


Project B

uild

Automated I

Complete Src

publish

ed

Project Test

Automated I

Software Construction Activities


Project B

uild

Automated I

Complete Src

publish

ed

Project Test

Automated I


Mission

Statem

ent

Comms

Platform

Contrib

utoion

Guidelines


Code of

Conduct

A small diversion on software engineering …

• 2 ratios define software development• All advances in programming languages and software engineering is attempting to beat these two ratios• [Community|Product] scale depends on reliably delivering the known executable environment every time • Linus’s Law is about REVIEWS not BUG FIXING


Project B

uild

Automated II

Project Test

Automated II

Basic

Arch

Descrip

tion



Project B

uild

Automated II

Project Test

Automated II

Basic

Arch

Descrip

tion


Governance

Events


Committers ContributorsCommunity

EcosystemProject

ProductsServices

Books

Training


EcosystemProject

ProductsServices

Books

Training

CorporateContributors

How do you make it easy to contribute?(What do you communicate to your COMMERCIAL community)

Project

License

Provenance

Tracking

Repositories

Protected

Dependencies

Documented

Contrib

utions

Auditted

Provenance

Managem

ent

Committers

Indemnified

Committer

Governance

Tradem

ark

Managem

ent

IP Management Activities

Foundations

• Henrik Ingo’s numbers• Foundations provide neutral ownership and a level playing field• Bright lines for projects versus products

Ope

n Source Com

mun

ity Practices

Project E

xes

publish

ed

Project B

uild

Automated I

Project Install

Automated

Complete Src

publish

ed

Project

BugTracking

Project B

uild

Automated II

Project Test

Automated I

Project Test

Automated II

Basic

Arch

Descrip

tion

Project

License

Project

License

Mission

Statem

ent

Code of

Conduct

Forums, Em

ail

Comms

Platform

FAQs, Ho

wto

Governance

Contrib

utoion

Guidelines

Events

Provenance

Tracking

Repositories

Protected

Dependencies

Documented

Contrib

utions

Auditted

Provenance

Managem

ent

Committers

Indemnified

Committer

Governance

Tradem

ark

Managem

ent


Community Development

Software Construction Maturity

Ope

n Source Com

mun

ity Patterns

Project E

xes

publish

ed

Project B

uild

Automated I

Project Install

Automated

Complete Src

publish

ed

Project

BugTracking

Project B

uild

Automated II

Project Test

Automated I

Project Test

Automated II

Basic

Arch

Descrip

tion

Project

License

Project

License

Mission

Statem

ent

Code of

Conduct

Forums, Em

ail

Comms

Platform

FAQs, Ho

wto

Governance

Contrib

utoion

Guidelines

Events

Provenance

Tracking

Repositories

Protected

Dependencies

Documented

Contrib

utions

Auditted

Provenance

Managem

ent

Committers

Indemnified

Committer

Governance

Tradem

ark

Managem

ent


Community Development

Software Construction Maturity

EncourageUsers

EncourageContributorsEncourage Developers

Encourage Corp Contributions

Developers

Users

Committers+

Code

Developers

Users

Committers+

Code

Books

Contractors

Products

Distributions

Consulting

Training

Support

Building the Ecosystem


EcosystemProject

ProductsServices

Books

Training

CorporateContributors

Customers

Questions & Commentsstephen r walli

[email protected]@stephenrwalli

http://stephesblog.blogs.comhttp://opensource.com

Scale14x Patterns and Practices for Open Source Project Success

Software

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