Open Source Survival Guide

Collaboration is the key for successful software development. It works best when code can be understood and contributed to by many. Sometimes we think the unwritten rules for successful online collaboration are obvious, but experience has shown again and again that it is not. So let's discuss these rules and write them down so we have them. We will discuss how to make successful code contributions to the projects we all rely on, and offer some strategies for encouraging contributions on our own projects.

Transcript

1. OPEN SOURCE
   SURVIVAL GUIDE
   @blowmage Presents…
   

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5. :mlpbeer:
   

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6. AND NOW FOR SOMETHING
   COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
   

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7. 18 MONTHS
   

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8. FULL TIME
   

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9. OPEN SOURCE
   

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10. AMA
    

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11. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    HOW DID YOU GET THAT GIG?
    Inquisitive Ruby on Ales Attendee
    I HAVE GOOD FRIENDS WHO HELP ME.
    Mike Moore, Super Lucky
    

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12. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    WHY IS YOUR BEARD SO MAGNIFICENT?
    Salt of the Earth Ruby on Ales Attendee
    I USE BEARD OIL AND COMB IT OFTEN.
    Mike Moore, Beard of Destiny
    

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13. 3 TYPES OF
    OPEN SOURCE USERS
    

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14. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    3 TYPES OF OPEN SOURCE USERS
    Maintainers
    Collaborators
    Consumers
    

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15. DREYFUS MODEL OF
    SKILL ACQUISITION
    

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16. Mastery
    Expertise
    Proficiency
    Competence
    Novice
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    DREYFUS MODEL OF SKILL ACQUISITION
    

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17. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    LEVEL 1: NOVICE
    Rigid adherence to taught rules or plans
    No exercise of "discretionary judgment"
    

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18. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    LEVEL 2: COMPETENCE
    Limited "situational perception"
    All aspects of work treated separately with equal
    importance
    

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19. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    LEVEL 3: PROFICIENCY
    “Coping with crowdedness" (multiple activities,
    accumulation of information)
    Some perception of actions in relation to goals
    Deliberate planning
    Formulates routines
    

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20. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    LEVEL 4: EXPERTISE
    Holistic view of situation
    Prioritizes importance of aspects
    "Perceives deviations from the normal pattern"
    Employs maxims for guidance, with meanings that adapt to
    the situation at hand
    

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21. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    LEVEL 5: MASTERY
    Transcends reliance on rules, guidelines, and maxims
    "Intuitive grasp of situations based on deep, tacit
    understanding"
    Has "vision of what is possible"
    Uses "analytical approaches" in new situations or in case of
    problems
    

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22. PRAGMATIC THINKING
    AND LEARNING
    BY ANDY HUNT
    

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23. AMA
    

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24. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    3 TYPES OF OPEN SOURCE USERS
    Maintainers
    Collaborators
    Consumers
    

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25. DOCUMENTATION
    

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26. THE ABSENCE OF A PROGRESSIVE,
    SMOOTH LEARNING RESOURCE THAT
    HAS NO SUDDEN JUMPS IN COMPLEXITY.
    Chris Smith
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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27. IF THE DOCUMENTATION IS BAD OR
    PARTIALLY COMPLETE IT CAN BE TOUGH
    TO UNDERSTAND OR IMPLEMENT.
    Joshua Richardson
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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28. I KEEP HEARING I SHOULD START WITH
    SUPPLEMENTING THE DOCUMENTATION,
    BUT HOW DOES THIS EVEN WORK?
    Barrett Clark
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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29. YOU FIND THE RIGHT SOLUTION BUT IT
    ISNT DOCUMENTED WELL ENOUGH TO
    UNDERSTAND.
    Todd Resudek
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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30. SOMETIMES THE DOCUMENTATION
    ASSUMES A CERTAIN LEVEL OF
    KNOWLEDGE. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE
    HOW-TOS AND STEP-BY-STEP EXAMPLES.
    Tad Thorley
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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31. LACK OF SUPPORT AND
    DOCUMENTATION.
    Jon Jensen
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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32. FINDING DOCUMENTATION NOT WRITTEN
    BY EXPERTS WHO ASSUME CONTEXT
    THEY DON'T HAVE.
    Sarah Mei
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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33. PEOPLE WHO ARE BIG NAMES IN OPEN
    SOURCE AND WHO YOU LOOKED UP TO
    TREATING YOU LIKE CRAP.
    Hsing-Hui Hsu
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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34. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    DOCUMENTATION
    Finding Documentation
    GitHub Page
    RubyDocs.info
    Reading Source Code
    

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35. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    TYPES OF DOCUMENTATION
    Code Documentation
    Method descriptions
    Method arguments
    Method example code
    

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36. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    TYPES OF DOCUMENTATION
    Library Guides
    README
    Tutorials, step-by-step instructions
    Screencasts
    Books
    

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37. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    README
    What the library does and does not
    Simple code example
    How to install the library
    Where to find code documentation
    Where to find guide documentation
    

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38. THIS IS HARD
    

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39. EMPATH
    

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40. OPPORTUNITY
    

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41. AMA
    

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42. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    3 TYPES OF OPEN SOURCE USERS
    Maintainers
    Collaborators
    Consumers
    

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43. CONTRIBUTING
    

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44. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    TYPES OF CONTRIBUTIONS
    Code
    Documentation
    Organization
    Software
    User Groups
    Conferences
    

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45. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    TYPES OF CONTRIBUTIONS
    Code - Maintainers, Collaborators
    Documentation - Maintainers, Collaborators, Consumers
    Organization - Maintainers, Collaborators, Consumers
    Software
    User Groups
    Conferences
    

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46. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    ENCOURAGING FIRST-TIME CONTRIBUTIONS
    CONTRIBUTING
    Setting up developer environment
    Contacting Maintainers (IRC, Gittter, Mailing List, etc.)
    Running Tests
    Code Conventions
    

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47. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    AUTOMATING CONTRIBUTIONS
    Rubocop
    Automated Build (Travis-CI, Circle CI, etc.)
    First-time Issue Labels (easy, first time, help wanted, etc.)
    Vagrant
    

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48. AMA
    

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49. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    3 TYPES OF OPEN SOURCE USERS
    Maintainers
    Collaborators
    Consumers
    

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50. SURVIVING
    

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51. USER GROUPS
    

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52. I FOUNDED AND ORGANIZE A MEETUP
    SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO CREATE A
    WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT.
    Hsing-Hui Hsu
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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53. OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    SURVIVING WITH HELP FROM USER GROUPS
    Simply be active in a User Group!
    Find a Beginner-friendly User Group
    Start a Beginner-friendly User Group
    Help Organize a User Group
    “My First Pull Request” Night
    

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54. I DON'T KNOW THAT YOU CAN LEARN A LOT ABOUT
    THIS BEFOREHAND. A LOT OF OPEN SOURCE
    KNOWLEDGE COMES FROM JUST CONTRIBUTING.
    YOU WILL MAKE MISTAKES. YOU WILL GET
    FRUSTRATED. IT IS NOT EASY...
    Eileen Uchitelle
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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55. BUT, IF YOU REMEMBER THAT EVERYONE IS HUMAN
    AND TREAT THEM AS SUCH, APOLOGIZE WHEN
    NECESSARY, AND WRITE GOOD EXPLANATIONS
    (AND COMMIT MESSAGES!) YOU WILL LEARN SO
    MUCH FROM CONTRIBUTING TO OSS.
    Eileen Uchitelle
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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56. COMMUNICATION
    

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57. LEARNING TO COMMUNICATE "REMOTELY". WE'RE
    SO USED TO WORKING RIGHT WITH THE PEOPLE
    WHO WROTE THE PREVIOUS CODE IN OUR APPS IT
    CAN BE HARD TO ADJUST YOUR WRITING
    STRUCTURE AND TONE…
    Eileen Uchitelle
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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58. FOR COMMUNICATING WITH SOMEONE A) YOU
    DON'T KNOW AND B) THROUGH TEXT.
    ADDITIONALLY, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IS VERY
    IMPORTANT TO COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY…
    Eileen Uchitelle
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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59. DON'T BLAME OR HARASS MAINTAINERS
    FOR PROBLEMS, INSTEAD HELP THEM
    FIX IT.
    Eileen Uchitelle
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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60. “THE BOX”
    

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61. LEADERSHIP AND
    SELF-DECEPTION
    THE ABRIDGER INSTITUTE
    

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62. SELF-DECEPTION
    

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63. “EXPERIENCING OTHER PEOPLE OR
    CIRCUMSTANCES AS HAVING MORE POWER
    OVER OUR OWN HAPPINESS THAN WE DO.”
    

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64. I'M SORRY YOU FEEL THAT WAY.
    Mike Moore, Professional Idiot
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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65. STORY TIME
    

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66. JUSTIFICATION IS THE ADULT
    VERSION OF BLAMING OTHERS
    

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67. OBJECTS
    

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69. WHEN SOMEONE WE HAVE BEEN BLAMING BECOMES
    REAL TO US, WE CHANGE. WE BECOME A PERSON WHO
    SEES ANOTHER PERSON AS REAL. WE CHANGE FROM
    BEING ACCUSING, GUARDED, AND SELF-ABSORBED TO
    BEING OPEN, SELF-FORGETFUL, AND WELCOMING.
    Terry Warner
    OPEN SOURCE SURVIVAL GUIDE
    

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70. TIME MACHINE
    

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71. THE RECONSIDERATION
    EXERCISE
    

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73. COOPERATIVE GAME
    

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74. AMA
    

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82. THANK YOU!
    

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