Difference between revisions of "Lowell:Starting Open Source Projects"

Latest revision as of 22:59, 18 December 2015

Do you have a software project you're thinking about releasing as open source? Are you thinking about starting an open source project? Let's talk!

• Introductions - who are you, why did you come to this session?

• What it means to make code open source
  • Licensing (see http://www.opensource.org/ for lots of licensing information)
  • Community
  • Revenue models
    • Yes, you can charge for it, although most don't
    • If it really takes off - revenue for support

• How to get other people to help
  • Building a community of users and developers
    • what does the software do? If it replicates something an already successful project does, getting it adopted might be hard
    • Find colleagues in organizations that are like yours, that have similar problems to solve.
    • If your organization has resources - hire help
  • Spreading the word
    • Field-specific lists, NOSI list, NTEN lists

• Documentation and ease of installation
  • Depending on what you are developing - it won't be just serious geeks that want to try it out.
  • It won't go far if people can't install it (take it from me.)
  • Don't let documentation be the last thing you do - document as you go along

• Where to put the code
  • Sourceforge
  • Google Code Hosting
  • Your own site using:
    • Trac - really great wiki/issue tracker/svn client all in one.