Open Source communities
November 14, 2012 8:03 pm community, freesoftwareI was re-reading one of my favourite blog posts on running an Open Source community today, and thought I would share it.
Max Kanat-Alexander is the Bugzilla Release Manager, and put a variety of thoughts on leading an Open Source community together – Open Source Community, Simplified.
The TL;DR version, for those too lazy to click through, is:
- Don’t freeze your trunk for long periods
- Turnover is inevitable, so recruitment is vital
- Respond to contributions immediately
- Be extremely kind and appreciative
- Encourage a total absence of personal negativity
His own tl;dr version of this is: “be really, abnormally, really, really kind, and don’t be mean”.
He then talks about removing barriers to contribution, promoting your project and getting new contributors interested.
All in all, an excellent contribution, and well worth the read.
November 14th, 2012 at 10:43 pm
Good link, excellent read, and as an occasional contributor, it resonated with me, particularly “Respond to contributions immediately”.