Making a splash with your open source project

So you've written a bunch of code, and you think others might find it useful. You open source it, and... profit, right? Well, no. PyPI is filled with thousands of projects that have been released with the best of intentions, but never really break into the mainstream. How do you escape this trap, and maximize the chance that your project will actually be used, grow and thrive?

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrXXYBr1rlA

Transcript

1. Making a Splash with your open source project Dr Russell Keith-Magee DjangoCon US 2016
2. Making a Splash with your open source project Dr Russell Keith-Magee DjangoCon US 2016
5. How to win at open source
6. Cargo cult
7. Don't be an Underpants Gnome
8. Goals of your project
9. "You might find this useful"
10. "I want everyone to use this"
11. "You might find this useful" vs "I want everyone to use this"
12. Communicate your intentions
13. Communicate your intentions
14. Everything changes
15. Setting up for success
16. Out of the box experience matters.
17. http://goo.gl/Epzms
20. Backwards compatibility
21. Time is relative.
22. “ A rule of thumb that has worked for me is that if I'm excited to play around w ith something it probably doesn't belong in production ” Maciej Ceglowski (Pinboard)
23. Tools vs ecosystems
24. Jacob's Tractor
25. Tools vs ecosystems
26. Metcalfe's Law: The utility of a network increases with the square of it's participants.
27. The role of communication in success
28. CherryPy TurboGears Repoze.BFG
29. Technical superiority isn't enough
30. Django Evolution
31. Sales & Marketing
32. What works? What doesn't?
33. Wild-ass guess
34. Wild ass-guess
35. Django Right place, right time Excellent documentation Python Opinionated 90% solution "Be nice" community
36. Django Evolution Right place, right time Badly communicated message
37. Cricket Controversial idea Odd graphical choices Didn't follow up
38. Beeware Toga VOC Batavia Rubicon Briefcase
39. Beeware Umbrella branding Aggressively nice Aggresive outreach Focus on onboarding Acknowledge all contributions Reward contributors
40. Beeware Vocal on social media Balanced attitude to accepting patches Set community culture & expectations
41. Fortune favours the prepared mind
42. Thank you! russell@keith-magee.com @freakboy3742 cecinestpasun.com pybee.org