Recruiting Campers To Help With Your Open Source Project

A talk given at That Conference 2013. It focuses on growing the community around your open source project. This is done by adding some necessary files to your project, structuring the code appropriately, and changes to the website.

Transcript

1. Recruiting Campers To Help With Your Open Source Project Steven Evans
2. Who am I? • Steven Evans • Have not been on .NET Rocks! • Software Engineer at API Healthcare • Twitter: @kopelli • http://sleeplessmonkey.blogspot.com/ • Language of choice: C#
3. Open Source Project Owners?
4. Agenda • Important Files • Code Architecture • Call To Action!
5. Important Points • It’s your project! • Keep an open perspective – Embrace Wheaton’s Law – Not everybody will be a developer • Not all projects are the same • Change takes time • Every language is loved
6. Important Files • LICENSE/COPYING • README • AUTHORS/CONTRIBUTORS/CREDITS • CONTRIBUTING • CHANGELOG
7. Important Files • LICENSE/COPYING • README • AUTHORS/CONTRIBUTORS/CREDITS • CONTRIBUTING • CHANGELOG
8. LICENSE/COPYING • What’s the diff? – http://stackoverflow.com/q/5678462/ • License – http://opensource.org/licenses/category • Copyright or Copyleft? • Just one license or many?
9. LICENSE/COPYING Source: http://choosealicense.com/
10. Important Files • LICENSE/COPYING • README • AUTHORS/CONTRIBUTORS/CREDITS • CONTRIBUTING • CHANGELOG
11. README • Name • Description • Main website • License Summary
12. README – Apache Server Source: http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/httpd/httpd/trunk/README
13. README – Nant Source: https://raw.github.com/nant/nant/master/README.md
14. README - CouchDB Source: https://raw.github.com/apache/couchdb/master/README.rst
15. README - Advanced • Inspiration for the project • Alternatives to the project
16. Important Files • LICENSE/COPYING • README • AUTHORS/CONTRIBUTORS/CREDITS • CONTRIBUTING • CHANGELOG
17. AUTHORS/CONTRIBUTORS/CREDITS • Who’s helped the project out • How did they help (optional)
18. AUTHORS – Perl 5 Source: http://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/AUTHORS
19. Important Files • LICENSE/COPYING • README • AUTHORS/CONTRIBUTORS/CREDITS • CONTRIBUTING • CHANGELOG
20. CONTRIBUTING • Getting started as a… – Developer – Documenter – Designer • Tips & Tricks
21. CONTRIBUTING – Puppet Source: https://raw.github.com/puppetlabs/puppet/master/CONTRIBUTING.md
22. CONTRIBUTING – Factory Girl Source: https://raw.github.com/thoughtbot/factory_girl_rails/master/CONTRIBUTING.md
23. Important Files • LICENSE/COPYING • README • AUTHORS/CONTRIBUTORS/CREDITS • CONTRIBUTING • CHANGELOG
24. CHANGELOG • Source Control isn’t a change log • Group by release • One sentence per feature/bug • Reference the Issue Tracker for the release
25. Source: https://raw.github.com/joyent/node/master/ChangeLog
26. Code Architecture • Programming Language • Version Control • The Code Itself • Hosting The Code • Testing • Examples • Continuous Builds
27. Code Architecture • Programming Language • Version Control • The Code Itself • Hosting The Code • Testing • Examples • Continuous Builds
28. Programming Language • Choice of language doesn’t matter – Not everybody will be an expert • Code Standards
29. Code Architecture • Programming Language • Version Control • The Code Itself • Hosting The Code • Testing • Examples • Continuous Builds
30. Version Control • Choice affects contributors • Understand the tools • Have a branching strategy – Branches should be public • Don’t be afraid to submit incomplete features – …in a branch
31. Code Architecture • Programming Language • Version Control • The Code Itself • Hosting The Code • Testing • Examples • Continuous Builds
32. The Code Itself • Make sure it compiles/runs! • Trunk/Main should always be runnable • Remember the “Axe Murderer” rule • Follows the style defined by the language
33. Code Architecture • Programming Language • Version Control • The Code Itself • Hosting The Code • Testing • Examples • Continuous Builds
34. Hosting The Code • File drops • Privately hosted repository • Public repository
35. Hosting The Code
36. Hosting The Code
37. Hosting The Code
38. Hosting The Code
39. Hosting The Code
40. Hosting The Code
41. Hosting The Code
42. Code Architecture • Programming Language • Version Control • The Code Itself • Hosting The Code • Testing • Examples • Continuous Builds
43. Testing • Unit Testing • Integration Testing
44. Code Architecture • Programming Language • Version Control • The Code Itself • Hosting The Code • Testing • Examples • Continuous Builds
45. Examples • Depends on project type • Scenario-based • Answers “How do I…?” • At least a “Hello, World”
46. Code Architecture • Programming Language • Version Control • The Code Itself • Hosting The Code • Testing • Examples • Continuous Builds
47. Continuous Builds • Automated Testing • Downloadable, versioned artifacts
48. Source: http://teamcity.codebetter.com/...
49. Source: http://teamcity.codebetter.com/...
50. Call To Action • Official Website • Community • Issue Tracker
51. Call To Action • Official Website • Community • Issue Tracker
52. Official Website • Have a professional design • Host under custom domain • How to start – Install – Run the project
53. Official Website • Change log • Road Map • Examples of Use • Documentation • Build history • Code Standards • Press Release/Newsletters • Screenshots
54. Websites - Rails Source: http://rubyonrails.org/
55. Websites - Python Source: http://python.org/
56. Websites – LibGit2 Source: http://libgit2.github.com/
57. Websites – Bootstrap 3 Source: http://twbs.github.io/bootstrap/
58. Call To Action • Official Website • Community • Issue Tracker
59. Community • Mailing List • Twitter • Facebook • IRC • Meet-ups • Conferences • Contact Information
60. Community - Drupal Source: https://drupal.org/community
61. Call To Action • Official Website • Community • Issue Tracker
62. Issue Tracker • Not just for bugs • Track features • Insight into what users want
63. Issue Tracker - Effeckt Source: https://github.com/h5bp/Effeckt.css/issues
64. Issue Tracker - StyleCop Source: http://stylecop.codeplex.com/workitem/list/advanced
65. What did we cover? • Everything mentioned you’ve encountered before • Open Source projects… – They take work! – Are a labor of love
66. The Next Level • http://www.fosshub.com • http://thechangelog.com • http://alternativeto.org • http://openhatch.org/ • http://www.codetriage.com/ • Leave the project…
67. Additional Links • http://freshbrewedcode.com/jimcowart/2013/08/09/open-source-project-advice/ • http://nikcodes.com/2013/05/10/new-contributor-jump-in/ • http://blog.anthonyvanderhoorn.com/2013/05/oss-from-the-trenches-7-tips-for- maintainers-and-contributors/ • http://blog.clojurewerkz.org/blog/2013/04/20/how-to-make-your-open-source- project-really-awesome/ • https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/05/how-to-spread-the-word-about-your-code/
68. Steven Evans Twitter: @kopelli http://sleeplessmonkey.blogspot.com/