Building Open Source Communities
summary
Practical lessons: avoid heavy early structure — techno board.net shows rigid forums look empty and kill participation — and don’t harden process for the sake of process (Node PR workflow becomes cumbersome). Empower contributors so they can ship features and mentor others. Accept help — Tent collapses after three core developers chase a “perfect 1.0” and kill its ecosystem. Move from BDFL to community governance as io.js does; support multiple channels (GitHub issues, Slack, IRC) and clear paths to contribution and distributed ownership.
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chapters (18)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:45What is an Open Source Community
- 2:34How do you build an Open Source Community
- 3:38Lessons from Building Open Source Communities
- 5:21Lesson 1 Dont Build Too Much
- 6:30Defining Guide Rails
- 7:42Setting Up Too Much Red Tape
- 9:26Empower Your Contributors
- 10:23Evangelism Working Group
- 11:22Community Committee
- 12:20Accept help along the way
- 13:00Dont own a community
- 14:43Project leadership
- 15:40My personal experience
- 17:22Communicate effectively
- 18:25Communication media
- 23:24Lessons
- 24:35Application
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