Searching for InnerSource Patterns in the Wild

[spier]

When multiple orgs confirm that they are using a pattern, it increases the maturity and relevance of the pattern. Therefore we list the orgs that have adopted the pattern as "Known Instances" on the pattern itself.

It also happens that multiple orgs re-discover a given pattern, without even considering it a pattern. Those orgs often won't know about the InnerSource Patterns collected in this repository either.

You can help us to improve our patterns by searching for online material of other orgs that have stated that they are using a solution similar to what is described in one of our patterns. You can then help those orgs to get added as a "Known Instance" to the given pattern.

Tasks

Please don't take the below as instructions for how you have to do this! It is just one possible way of how you could approach the hunt for patterns in the wild :)

• pick any of our mature patterns from https://patterns.innersourcecommons.org
• read the pattern thoroughly
• then try to find blog posts, conference talks or similar from other orgs that are talking about adopting a solution similar to what has been described in the pattern (the key task here is to identify search terms related to the problem or solution in the pattern that lead you to relevant online resources)
• once you have found something, review it to determine if it is indeed similar enough to what is described in the pattern
• if yes, create a PR that adds a description to the pattern with how the given org has applied the pattern - take a look at these fantastic descriptions of Known Instances for inspiration
• (bonus) identify somebody at the given org that can confirm that they are indeed using the given pattern. contacts that person and let them know that you have opened a PR on this repo. potentially they can even share more insights about the given pattern with us.

If you want an even easier starting point, you can also review the issues with the label patterns-in-the-wild. These represent possible starting points to extract Known Instances, or create entirely new patterns based on online resources published by various orgs.

[deveshidwivedi]

hello, please assign me this issue under hacktoberfest 2023, i'm sure i can do this well.

[spier]

By all means @deveshidwivedi, would be great if you would work on this and find further organizations that have implemented some of these InnerSource Patterns.

Note that multiple people can work on this in parallel. Therefore we might assign multiple people to the same issue.

[deveshidwivedi]

hello sir, could you please guide me as to how to start, please?

[spier]

@deveshidwivedi sorry but I missed your question here. Do you have any specific questions about what is explained above?

[spier]

@dellagustin-sap you had mentioned the idea of a Pattern Hunt/Quest as an attendee challenge at the next ISC Summit. Above I have already listed some ideas for how to go about searching for patterns. Shall we discuss and brainstorm your idea on this issue here?