The tradition of privileging only technical skills triggers imbalance and inequality.
Tyranny of Permissionlessness
open source’s narrow focus further empowers those with other ways to exclude
The Few, the Tired, the Open Source Coders
The open source movement runs on the heroic efforts of not enough people doing too much work. They need help.
Open Source Has Not Failed. Don't Cover Up Corporate Abuse of Open Source
Open source's free licensing does not drive inequality. Corporate's lack of support for open source does drive inequality.
The Minimally-nice Open Source Software Maintainer
Being involved in open source software is rewarding, yeah? You start off contributing to your favorite project, and it feels so heartwarming when that project’s maintainers recognize your effort. Then a few years later you somehow end up responsible for that project, and maybe some satellite projects, and people are clamoring for your attention, and your inbox is never empty, and it’s exhausting and terrifying, and the skills necessary to cope with all the personalities involved are entirely different from the skills you used to get your foot in the door in the first place.
How to manage casual contributors to open source projects
Try these strategies to better utilize contributions from your project's episodic volunteers.
Passive Open Source
I used to be an active contributor to open source projects, but that was when I was still in college - I had a lot of free time and it was some good learning experience. I even managed to get involved with several open source projects when I start my first job in a big company.
Katerina Marchán (@zkat@toot.cat)
Open source maintainers of major projects (hi) are not ready to accept and talk about how the cultural insistence on permissive licensing is just straight up labor exploitation taking advantage of our addiction to popularity (also hi). We’re doing this to ourselves too, you know.
Ten FOSS Development Fallacies For User Facing Software
This is a list, inspired by the Five Geek Social Fallacies, of common patterns or behaviours that developers of free/open source software (FOSS) fall into when they try to develop software for users who are not technical, or for whom non-technical users would be the most obvious userbase. Hopefully writing these down (which frankly is cathartic more than anything) is helpful to some in recognising these thought patterns and avoiding them when developing software - I’ve got some of my own thoughts on this at the bottom.
The open source community that embraces designers most, wins.
That’s my theory. Here’s my reasoning:
How open source projects need to adapt to the AI coding era | We Love Open Source • All Things Open
A new Carnegie Mellon study shows AI coding tools boost velocity by 281% — then leave codebases harder to work with. Here's what open source communities need to do before the sugar rush wears off.
Contributor Covenant | Contributor Covenant 3
The most widely adopted code of conduct in open source. Stewarded by the Organization for Ethical Source.
How to become an amazing contributor (to an open source project)
It's a busy morning here in New York City. My email inbox is full of pleasant surprises. The first is a patch for one of my open source projects. A second will appear this afternoon. A third should come late at night—or maybe tomorrow–from a new contributor. Alongside my day job, I contribute and manage open source projects. The number of projects I work on has grown from a couple of small tools to well over a dozen in the last three years. Open source has become a great way to learn new technology, experiment with modern software development practices, and, of course, meet other like-minded engineers. I find that seeing great contributors send working and tested code provides a unique feeling of accomplishment, as powerful as having many satisfied users of my own applications or strong revenues posted by the employer that pays my bills.
AI creates asymmetric pressure on Open Source
How Open Source communities can adapt to AI-generated contributions without overwhelming Open Source maintainers
Give Away Your Code, But Never Your Time — William Gross
As software developers, I think we can agree that open-source1 code has transformed the world. Its public nature tears down the walls that prevent some pieces of software from becoming the best they can be. The problem is that too many valuable projects stagnate, with burned-out leaders:
Twelve tips for growing communities around your open source project | Ben Balter
Publishing code isn't enough. Twelve practical tips to attract users, welcome contributors, and grow a healthy open source community.
