Seven Hard Truths About Open Source Community
In OSS, managing a project may not get easier as it gets more successful. We like to think that attracting lots of users means success, & success means spreading the workload. But sometimes managing a …
| Talk Title | Seven Hard Truths About Open Source Community |
| Speakers | Matt Butcher (Principal Software Engineer, Microsoft), Karen Chu (Community Manager, Microsoft) |
| Conference | Open Source Summit + ELC North America |
| Conf Tag | |
| Location | San Diego, CA, USA |
| Date | Aug 19-23, 2019 |
| URL | Talk Page |
| Slides | Talk Slides |
| Video | |
In OSS, managing a project may not get easier as it gets more successful. We like to think that attracting lots of users means success, & success means spreading the workload. But sometimes managing a successful OSS project actually comes with unexpected work. In this talk, we cover hard lessons learned from managing OSS projects:1.More than code needs to be open–ex. using HackMD, not Google Docs (some countries can’t access Google – this is a roadblock to openness)2.Multiple projects, same team–one team managing many projects has its own pros/cons3.Bad actors in the space - how to deal with them4.Open decision making is part of OSS–making trade offs w/ time, resources & features5.Branding is more important expected–Devs care that your website is pretty+logo is hip6.Success=criticism–Pioneering a new space means early benefits but critics catch up7.Pick sustainable tooling–Freemium/limited tools can cause churn in projects. What happens when you’ve used up your free allotment?
