making open source
projects thrive
… As narrated by
@shazow (Andrey Petrov)
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Bit about me...
● Open Sourcing things since ~2007
● Mildly popular on Github…
● I like doing startuppy things
○ Y-Combinator
○ Google Acquihiree
○ Bootstrapping Briefmetrics and
other things
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https://twitter.com/shazow/status/572832261650952192
Open source lessons
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First
Why and how to get
started with open
source
Second
What to do once you
already have a project
and want it to thrive
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What’s Open Source?
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Why open source your code?
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Why open source your code?
● Mechanism for reducing sunk cost
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Why open source your code?
● Mechanism for reducing sunk cost
● Free replicated backups
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Why open source your code?
● Mechanism for reducing sunk cost
● Free replicated backups
● Easy to link to and ask for help
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Why open source your code?
● Mechanism for reducing sunk cost
● Free replicated backups
● Easy to link to and ask for help
● Even more emails from recruiters
Why open source your code?
● Mechanism for reducing sunk cost
● Free replicated backups
● Easy to link to and ask for help
● Even more emails from recruiters
● That smug feeling of being better than other
people
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Bad reasons for not open sourcing
● “Somebody might see my terrible code!”
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Bad reasons for not open sourcing
● “Somebody might see my terrible code!”
● “It’s not ready yet.”
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Bad reasons for not open sourcing
● “Somebody might see my terrible code!”
● “It’s not ready yet.”
● “It’s just one file.”
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Bad reasons for not open sourcing
● “Somebody might see my terrible code!”
● “It’s not ready yet.”
● “It’s just one file.”
● “I don’t want to write docs for it.”
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Bad reasons for not open sourcing
“I don’t have enough time”
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Quick survey!
● Who here uses Python?
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Quick survey!
● Who here uses Python?
● … do you use urllib3?
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Quick survey!
● Who here uses Python?
● … urllib3?
● … requests?
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Quick survey!
● Who here uses Python?
● … urllib3?
● … requests?
● … pip?
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TRICK QUESTION!!
pip ⊃ requests ⊃ urllib3
Which brings me to...
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What is success?
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What is success?
● github.com/shazow/urllib3
○ Published in 2008
○ Used by millions today
○ 785 stars on Github
○ Slow, steady, calculated growth
What is success?
● github.com/shazow/ssh-chat
○ Fun weekend project a few months ago
○ Used by like 15 people today
○ 1560 stars on Github
○ Huge burst of early growth, but mostly abandoned
What is success?
● github.com/shazow/dotfiles
○ Lovingly maintained for years
○ Used by me, often linked to others
○ 7 stars on Github
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No content
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What is success?
● github.com/shazow/dotfiles
○ Lovingly maintained for years
○ Used by me, often linked to others
○ 7 stars on Github
○ Intrinsically motivated, never going away
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Step 1. What do you really want?
● Users?
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Step 1. What do you really want?
● Users?
● Contributors?
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Step 1. What do you really want?
● Users?
● Contributors?
● Praise?
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Step 1. What do you really want?
● Users?
● Contributors?
● Praise?
● Talk opportunities?
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Step 1. What do you really want?
● Users?
● Contributors?
● Praise?
● Talk opportunities?
● Dolla dolla billz?
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Step 1. What do you really want?
● Users?
● Contributors?
● Praise?
● Talk opportunities?
● Dolla dolla billz?
● More recruiter emails?
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Step 2. Figure out what to build
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Step 2. Figure out what to build
● Contribute to an existing project?
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Step 2. Figure out what to build
● Contribute to an existing project?
○ A noble endeavour
○ Fix what you’re already using
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Step 2. Figure out what to build
● Contribute to an existing project?
○ A noble endeavour
○ Fix what you’re already using
● Start a new project?
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Step 2. Figure out what to build
● Contribute to an existing project?
○ A noble endeavour
○ Fix what you’re already using
● Start a new project?
○ More glory
○ Need to figure out what’s valuable...
Problem: Upload billions of images to S3 in 2008.
The story of urllib3
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Problem: Upload billions of images to S3 in 2008.
Problem: It’s going to take +3 weeks because
there is no concurrency.
The story of urllib3
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Problem: It’s going to take +3 weeks because
there is no concurrency.
Solution: s3funnel, multithreaded S3 client
The story of urllib3
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Solution: s3funnel, multithreaded S3 client
Problem: Managing threads is painful. >.<
The story of urllib3
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Solution: s3funnel, multithreaded S3 client
Problem: Managing threads is painful. >.<
Solution: workerpool (used in s3funnel)
The story of urllib3
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Solution: s3funnel, multithreaded S3 client
Solution: workerpool (used in s3funnel)
The story of urllib3
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Solution: s3funnel, multithreaded S3 client
Solution: workerpool (used in s3funnel)
Problem: HTTP libraries don’t re-use connections,
most solutions aren’t threadsafe, and no multipart
(filepost) encoding.
The story of urllib3
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Problems all the way down
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Solution: s3funnel, multithreaded S3 client
Solution: workerpool (used in s3funnel)
Solution: urllib3 (used in s3funnel)
The story of urllib3
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Solution space
s3funnel
Usecase: Upload things to S3
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Solution space
workerpool
s3funnel
Usecase: Manage your threads (not a super-common use case in Python-land)
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Solution space
workerpool
s3funnel
urllib3
Usecase: ALL http related things. APIs, crawling… and APIs!!
Maybe it was all timing?
● Python in 2008 was not as mature, easier to
make a popular http library?
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Maybe it was all timing?
● Python in 2008 was not as mature, easier to
make a popular http library?
○ urllib3 didn’t get “big” until ~2012
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Maybe it was all timing?
● Python in 2008 was not as mature, easier to
make a popular http library?
○ urllib3 didn’t get “big” until ~2012
● Find any 7-yearold language and write http
clients for it?
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Maybe it was all timing?
● Python in 2008 was not as mature, easier to
make a popular http library?
○ urllib3 didn’t get “big” until ~2012
● Find any 7-yearold language and write http
clients for it?
○ Not that simple, Go launched with a comparatively
great HTTP client right out of the gate.
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Step 3. Minimum Viable OSS
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Step 3. Minimum Viable OSS
● Open source it, put it on Github.
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Step 3. Minimum Viable OSS
● Open source it, put it on Github.
● README
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Step 3. Minimum Viable OSS
● Open source it, put it on Github.
● README
○ What is it? Can I use it?
● Really good README
○ What's the license? What can I do with it? How to
contribute?
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Step 3. Minimum Viable OSS
● Open source it, put it on Github.
● README
○ What is it? Can I use it?
● Really good README
○ What's the license? What can I do with it? How to
contribute?
● Even better README
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Making it thrive
● If you build it, that doesn’t mean they’ll
come.
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Making it thrive
● If you build it, that doesn’t mean they’ll
come.
● github.com/shazow:
○ 44 source projects
○ 16 with more than 5 stars
○ Arguably 3 “popular” projects
ASK FOR HELP
● Get people to send pull requests
● Ask specific people to help review
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ASK FOR HELP—AND ACCEPT IT!!!
● Get people to send pull requests
● Ask specific people to help review
● Accept pull requests very generously,
especially in the beginning
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ASK FOR HELP—AND ACCEPT IT!!!
● Get people to send pull requests
● Ask specific people to help review
● Accept pull requests very generously,
especially in the beginning
● Get people involved!
ASK FOR HELP—AND ACCEPT IT!!!
● Get people to send pull requests
● Ask specific people to help review
● Accept pull requests very generously,
especially in the beginning
● Get people involved!
● Please be nice
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Promote your project
● Write interesting blog posts (and promote
them)
Promote your project
● Write interesting blog posts
● Answer StackOverflow questions
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“If anyone is up for improving our
documentation to this effect, that
would be greatly appreciated. :) …”
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No content
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“I would be +1 to adding something
like this if you’re interested in making
a PR. :) (Opened an issue here…)”
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Promote your project
● Write interesting blog posts
● Answer StackOverflow questions
● Participate in discussions (HN, Reddit, etc)
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Feed the non-trolls
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… Would you rather click
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet (ipsum.org)
8 points by batman 3 hours ago | flag | 1 comments
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet (ipsum.org)
8 points by batman 3 hours ago | flag | 7 comments
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Promote your project
● Write interesting blog posts
● Answer StackOverflow questions
● Participate in discussions (HN, Reddit, etc)
● Sell to other projects and establish
partnerships.
So you’re swimming in
pull requests, what’s next?
Monetizing Open Source
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So you’re swimming in
pull requests, what’s next?
Dolla dolla billz, ofc.
Monetizing Open Source
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“We want to be like Docker…”
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“We want to be like Docker…”
● Why is Docker doing so well?
○ Very well funded.
○ Thousands of contributors helping for FREE!
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“We want to be like Docker…”
● Why is Docker doing so well?
● Kinda like having your cake and eating it too
(you’ll need two cakes).
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“We want to be like Docker…”
● Why is Docker doing so well?
● Kinda like having your cake and eating it too
(you’ll need two cakes).
● This is actually somewhat common...
Results: HUGE SUCCESS*
● One $5 donation via Donorbox (via Stripe!)
● One $5 Bitcoin donation via Coinbase.
● Gittip grew by 50% ($1/wk → $1.50/wk, lol)
● … Lessons were learned.
* ‘success’ is a lie.
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Funding Open Source
● Significant time chunks required for
meaningful progress (at least half-day slots).
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Funding Open Source
● Significant time chunks required for
meaningful progress (at least half-day slots).
● Peer-funded is not practical for most cases.
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Funding Open Source
● Significant time chunks required for
meaningful progress (at least half-day slots).
● Peer-funded is not practical for most cases.
● Need to hack accounting for corporate
funding.
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Funding Open Source
● Significant time chunks required for
meaningful progress (at least half-day slots).
● Peer-funded is not practical for most cases.
● Need to hack accounting for corporate
funding.
● Fantasy: Government-funded open source.
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Dear Stripe,
Your contributions had a big impact on open
source. I hope more companies will follow
your lead. Thank you.
Love,
Andrey
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Corp’en Source business models
● Open Core (Docker)
● Dogfooding (Gratipay)
● Consulting & Support (Nginx)
● Advertising (Mozilla)
● Charity & Grants (GnuPG, urllib3?)
● … More???
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Corp’en Source business models
● Open Core (Docker)
● Dogfooding (Gratipay)
● Consulting & Support (Nginx)
● Advertising (Mozilla)
● Charity & Grants (GnuPG, urllib3?)
● Kickstarter (Neovim)
Corp’en Source business models
● Open Core (Docker)
● Dogfooding (Gratipay)
● Consulting & Support (Nginx)
● Advertising (Mozilla)
● Charity & Grants (GnuPG)
● Kickstarter (Neovim)
● Speculation (Bitcoin)
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Corp’en Source business models
Open source first, make money later?
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Making your OSS thrive
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Making your OSS thrive
● Make an awesome README.
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Great README
● What is it? Is it what I’m looking for?
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Great README
● What is it? Is it what I’m looking for?
● Demo? What else can I do with it?
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Great README
● What is it? Is it what I’m looking for?
● Demo? What else can I do with it?
● Link to more docs?
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Great README
● What is it? Is it what I’m looking for?
● Demo? What else can I do with it?
● Link to more docs?
● License?
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Great README
● What is it? Is it what I’m looking for?
● Demo? What else can I do with it?
● Link to more docs?
● License?
● How do I contribute? Run Tests?
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Great README
● What is it? Is it what I’m looking for?
● Demo? What else can I do with it?
● Link to more docs?
● License?
● How do I contribute? Run Tests?
● Goals? Future milestones?
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Making your OSS thrive
● Make an awesome README.
● Push to Github.
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Making your OSS thrive
● Make an awesome README.
● Push to Github.
● Maybe even write some code!
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Making your OSS thrive
● Make an awesome README.
● Push to Github.
● Maybe even write some code! (And push it)
● Get people involved, be generous and
nice.
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Get people involved
● Ask for help.
● Call specific people out.
● Please be nice.
● Accept generously.
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Making your OSS thrive
● Make an awesome README.
● Push to Github.
● Maybe even write some code! (And push it)
● Get people involved, be generous and nice.
● Promote your work.
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Promote your work
● Write interesting blog posts.
● Share it with your friends, multiple times.
● Find people with the problem you solved.
● Give talks about it.
● Find projects which benefit from your
solution.
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Making your OSS thrive
● Make an awesome README.
● Push to Github.
● Maybe even write some code! (And push it)
● Get people involved, be generous and nice.
● Promote your work.
● Do it a bunch of times.
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You don’t need to wait for my
next talk to read my tweets!
twitter.com/shazow
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You don’t need to wait for my
next talk to read my tweets!
twitter.com/shazow