Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Tending Your Open Source Garden
Search
Sponsored
·
SiteGround - Reliable hosting with speed, security, and support you can count on.
→
Brandon Keepers
PRO
June 26, 2014
Technology
1.1k
2
Share
Embed
Copy iframe code
Copy JS code
Copy link
Start on current slide
Tending Your Open Source Garden
Brandon Keepers
PRO
June 26, 2014
More Decks by Brandon Keepers
See All by Brandon Keepers
Automating Software Development
bkeepers
PRO
3
600
Building the GitHub workspace app
bkeepers
PRO
1
490
Contributing to Your Career
bkeepers
PRO
4
840
A Maturity Model for Embracing Open Source Software
bkeepers
PRO
3
1k
Open Source Principles for Internal Engineering Teams
bkeepers
PRO
8
1.5k
Carbon, Automobiles, Bebop & Fashion
bkeepers
PRO
1
670
Tending Your Open Source Garden, v2
bkeepers
PRO
1
720
The Loyal Renegade
bkeepers
PRO
3
1.1k
A Chronicle of the Nebulous HTML5
bkeepers
PRO
11
1.2k
Other Decks in Technology
See All in Technology
証券システムを10年Scalaで作り続けるということ - 関数型まつり2026
krrrr38
1
300
#エンジニアBooks 30分でわかる 「技術記事を書く技術」 / engineer-books 2026-06-30
jnchito
1
180
フルAIで個人開発して学んだあれこれ / yuruai vol.1
isaoshimizu
0
170
ご挨拶「10周年を迎える共創ラボのこれまでとこれから」
iotcomjpadmin
0
180
AI駆動開発におけるQAエンジニアの役割事例 〜AI駆動開発の現場から〜
kobayashiyorimitsu
0
300
AWS Summit 2026で見えたSIerにとっての Amazon Quickの位置づけ
maf_0521
0
160
アラート調査向けAIエージェントの本番導入とその後/AI Agents for Alert Investigation: Production Deployment and After
taddy_919
1
370
Oracle Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer X11M (ExaDB-C@C) サービス概要
oracle4engineer
PRO
2
8.3k
AI時代のエンジニアキャリアについて今一度考える
sakamoto_582
1
1.2k
Kotlin 開発のツラミを爆破した話! / Explode the difficulty of Kotlin dev!
eller86
0
140
Claude Codeとハーネスについて考えてみる
oikon48
17
8.1k
AIをフル活用してオンコール機能のプロトタイプを2日で作った話 / Building an AI-Powered On-Call Prototype in Just Two Days
nari_ex
0
180
Featured
See All Featured
The Success of Rails: Ensuring Growth for the Next 100 Years
eileencodes
47
8.2k
Marketing Yourself as an Engineer | Alaka | Gurzu
gurzu
0
250
Balancing Empowerment & Direction
lara
6
1.2k
Writing Fast Ruby
sferik
630
63k
How to build an LLM SEO readiness audit: a practical framework
nmsamuel
1
800
Understanding Cognitive Biases in Performance Measurement
bluesmoon
32
3k
Sam Torres - BigQuery for SEOs
techseoconnect
PRO
0
300
Why You Should Never Use an ORM
jnunemaker
PRO
61
9.9k
What the history of the web can teach us about the future of AI
inesmontani
PRO
1
630
The State of eCommerce SEO: How to Win in Today's Products SERPs - #SEOweek
aleyda
2
11k
From π to Pie charts
rasagy
0
230
10 Git Anti Patterns You Should be Aware of
lemiorhan
PRO
659
62k
Transcript
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cress_keyboard-3_sprouting_other_side.jpg Garden @BKEEPERS TENDING YOUR OPEN SOURCE !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_gnome_liberationists "bkeepers
I ♥ ⚘
I like writing software because I like gardening. https://www.flickr.com/photos/91663396@N00/7080354723/
Open Source is like community gardening. https://www.flickr.com/photos/antoinettevanderieth/8753016923
P L A N C U L T I V
A T E S O W W A T E R M U L C H P R U N E H A R V E S T
M Y G A R D E N S
M Y G A R D E N S dotenv
M Y G A R D E N S dotenv
delayed_job
M Y G A R D E N S dotenv
delayed_job qu
M Y G A R D E N S dotenv
delayed_job qu tinder
M Y G A R D E N S dotenv
delayed_job qu tinder rosie
M Y G A R D E N S dotenv
delayed_job qu tinder rosie github-notifications
Large open source projects are like farming… https://www.flickr.com/photos/messycupcakes/7722551044/
…or land management. https://www.flickr.com/photos/47096398@N08/7462466876
Steve Klabnik http://words.steveklabnik.com/how-to-be-an-open-source-gardener
I’m talking about gardening
Plan https://www.flickr.com/photos/btobin/4456582998
What are your motivations?
The ultimate goal is to produce a harvest.
How much time can you dedicate? https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugardener/3553160869
Open source is hard work, but it often leads to
better software. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugardener/3553160869
Cultivate https://www.flickr.com/photos/librariesrock/3760104913
Pick a good name.
What makes a name “good”? 1. Searchable 2. Memorable 3.
Suggestive 4. Not too boring 5. Not too weird 6. Not too trendy
None
Q U
Q U OMG, a Better Background Queue!
O M G B B Q OMG, a Better Background
Queue!
Write documentation.
one-line description longer explanation What makes a good README?
one-line description longer explanation how to install it
one-line description longer explanation how to install it how to
use it
how to contribute
See github.com/trending for examples
Choose a license. https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewprickett/6649056779/
ChooseALicense.com
Follow conventions. https://www.flickr.com/photos/cccpxokkeu/8580600558/
Sow https://www.flickr.com/photos/nateswartphoto/5623220460
This is the easiest part.
Tell the world about it.
Blog about it.
!
Now, ready to work?
Water http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Talk:Rainbow/Archive_1#mediaviewer/File:Self_Made_Rainbow.JPG
Consistency and diligence are crucial.
Follow your own contribution guidelines.
Invite people in.
Always be hospitable.
Give it time. https://www.flickr.com/photos/onegiantleap/4124211492
Mulch https://www.flickr.com/photos/chiotsrun/3247946933
Only add features that you want to maintain. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajbatac/7179488176
Tests guard against erosion.
Continuous integration gives contributors confidence.
D O N ’ T F E E D T
H E T R O L L S https://www.flickr.com/photos/eldave/3332622539
Prune https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremyhiebert/5454990146
Remove features that you don’t want to maintain.
Split them into separate repositories.
dotenv-deployment
Use semantic versioning https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimfischer/8384524415 1.2.6 minor patch major semver.org
Use semantic versioning https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimfischer/8384524415 1.2.6 minor patch major } backwards-compatibile
bug fixes semver.org
Use semantic versioning https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimfischer/8384524415 1.2.6 minor patch major } backwards-compatible
functionality semver.org
Use semantic versioning https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimfischer/8384524415 1.2.6 minor patch major } incompatible
API changes semver.org
Deprecate features in minor versions, remove them in major versions
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimfischer/8384524415
1.x.x https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimfischer/8384524415 if using_deprecated_feature? warn "[DEPRECATION] This feature has been
" + "deprecated and will be removed in 2.0.", caller[0] # deprecated functionality here end
Keep a changelog. http://bit.ly/1mfVB3d
Changelog.md http://bit.ly/1mfVB3d
Harvest
Give it away when it stops being fun.
…unless you still depend on it.
Clearly state the project’s status.
G R I T
None
None
None
Learn from your mistakes.
“For the record, I am a terrible open source maintainer.
— @bkeepers - 7 Jan 2014
Thank You " bkeepers