Open Source is built on openness and freedom. It providies space for intrinsically motivated work. Through free distributon of its results it fosters visibility. This reduces barriers. It encourages peers to come together and realize their goals through open means.
That is all carried by open source communities. They unlock new levels of collaboration and adoption which result in a new quality of success. Not every open source project intends to build a community but those who do and succeed have an invaluable asset at hand to foster their success.
How can you reach that success? There are three key factors: Form an idea, Produce good code and Be accessible to users and contributors. This is what makes a good upstream open source project, a project which creates value to its users, a project which attracts people to work on creating this value together.
At first, there is the need for an idea to build the project around. Without a start that attracts other people to your project, there will never be an successful open source project. Successful ideas can be as diverse as menkind is. They do not need to be innovative or new, yet they can. The only measure here is if there is any other big or small group of people interested in it.
There is a lot to be said about how to create good code which has value. There are many places where you will find great information, advice and inspiration how this can be done. Here we will focus on how to make an open source project accessible to users and contributors. What are the stepping stones you need to build to give users and contributors a way to access the project, to use its results and be a part of it.
This is work in progress. There are many stepping stones you can identify and we expect the collection to grow and become more detailed over time. It will never be an exhaustive list of everything possible, but we hope that this collection can be useful as a source for people to pick what resonates with them and build there own interpretation which suits their projects.
To give some orientation we group the stepping stones in eight paths which look at accessing open source projects from four different angles, Each stepping stone comes with a description and some examples and stories from real projects which illustrate the idea. Here we also very much welcome your input. You do know more examples and stories. Please don't hesitate to contribute them so that others can learn and be inspired from what you have learned and already figured out.
- Motivation - What attracts people to the project? What is the intrinsic motivation to be a part?
- Home - What is the identiy of the project? How can people feel at home there?
- Transparency - How to realize the benefits of being open? How to be welcoming, reliable, and predictable?
- Adoption - How to reach users and grow their base?
- Development - What are development practices which foster quality, trust, and fun?
- Governance - Which structures are needed to support the project?
- Onboarding - How do people get into the project?
- Sustainability - What is the long-term perspective to maintain the project? Where does funding come from?
The eight paths form four angles from which to access an open source project. Together they build the complete picture of stepping stones.
There are four angles:
- The emotional angle: Motivation and Home
- The angle of accessibility: Transparency and Adoption
- The structural angle: Development and Governance
- The economical angle: Onboarding and Sustainability
Use the stepping stones as patterns for success. Apply what fits you. Learn from the examples. Use them as checklist of what to care about.
Each project will need its specific set of stepping stones and will arrange them in different patterns put different priorities. Looking at it from a systematic way and learning from others can help to find your own way.
And when you find paths and stepping stones which are not listed here yet, please feel free to contribute them so that others can learn from it as well.
The content of this repository is licensed under CC-BY.
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