Making a Splash
with your open source project
Dr Russell Keith-Magee
DjangoCon US 2016
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Making a Splash
with your open source project
Dr Russell Keith-Magee
DjangoCon US 2016
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How to win at open source
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Cargo cult
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Don't be an Underpants Gnome
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Goals of your project
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"You might find this useful"
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"I want everyone to use this"
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"You might find this useful"
vs
"I want everyone to use this"
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Communicate your intentions
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Communicate your intentions
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Everything changes
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Setting up for success
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Out of the box
experience matters.
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http://goo.gl/Epzms
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Backwards compatibility
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Time is relative.
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“ 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)
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Tools vs ecosystems
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Jacob's Tractor
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Tools vs ecosystems
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Metcalfe's Law:
The utility of a network increases with the square of it's participants.
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The role of communication in success
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CherryPy
TurboGears
Repoze.BFG
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Technical superiority isn't enough
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Django Evolution
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Sales & Marketing
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What works? What doesn't?
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Wild-ass guess
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Wild ass-guess
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Django
Right place, right time
Excellent documentation
Python
Opinionated 90% solution
"Be nice" community
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Django Evolution
Right place, right time
Badly communicated message
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Cricket
Controversial idea
Odd graphical choices
Didn't follow up
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Beeware
Toga
VOC
Batavia
Rubicon
Briefcase
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Beeware
Umbrella branding
Aggressively nice
Aggresive outreach
Focus on onboarding
Acknowledge all contributions
Reward contributors
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Beeware
Vocal on social media
Balanced attitude to accepting patches
Set community culture & expectations