How to Open Source a project

abbycabs commented 8 years ago

@auremoser & @acabunoc

[x] brainstorm session
- some thoughts came out when we chatted on Monday:
- pudo's open data: http://pudo.org/projects/checklist/
- https://mozillascience.org/seven-steps-to-building-community-around-your-open-source-project
[x] put together a cheat sheet / checklist
[ ] figure out where this will live @zee-moz & @stephwright

@kaythaney - feel free to add any info / your thoughts here!

kaythaney commented 8 years ago

thanks both! will have a think.

On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 10:20 AM, Abigail Cabunoc Mayes < notifications@github.com> wrote:

@auremoser https://github.com/auremoser & @acabunoc https://github.com/acabunoc

brainstorm session

some thoughts came out when we chatted on Monday:

pudo's open data: http://pudo.org/projects/checklist/

https://mozillascience.org/seven-steps-to-building-community-around-your-open-source-project

put together a cheat sheet / checklist

@kaythaney https://github.com/kaythaney - feel free to add any info / your thoughts here!

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/mozillascience/plan/issues/34.

@kaythaney http://twitter.com/kaythaney/ @MozillaScience http://twitter.com/mozillascience

auremoser commented 8 years ago

I really like your layout in that blog post, and for consistency. I think it would be rad to maintain that structure, with a few additions, like the code of conduct we discussed, maybe with some general headers and alternative links (for example, if they choose to share code on a platform other than github (bitbucket or whatever)):

cc @zee-moz for some perspective on curriculum design.

General Reference

Arrange Hosting

(aka GitHub – public repository)

[ ] create a public Github repo, read how to here
[ ] consider alternatives to Github if you choose to otherwise host through another open source provider, note however, that the Github community is very friendly to open projects and fully-featured for versioning/issue tracking/micro-site hosting (through gh-pages) so it might be advantageous to start with Github
[ ] checkout this comparison of a few version control systems, namely Git, Subversion, Mercurial; Github works off the Git protocol, but it's valuable to be aware that there are other options

Provide License

[ ] write a LICENSE.md file to indicate what people can do with your software, who can contribute, and what legal constraints you would like to impose, or not
[ ] checkout this guide for choosing a license or adopt a very permissive WTFPL license

Make Your Mission Clear

[ ] include a README.md in your repository
[ ] check out this guide to authoring a good readme

Setup Issues

[ ] set-up a public issue tracker, here are some recommendations for formal trackers
[ ] you can also set-up some instructions and templates for issues in github, and "watching" repos to keep abreast of issue logging
[ ] check out this resource on filing good bugs, and try to define a bug policy
[ ] maybe provide a template to make sure adequate context is given to issues submitted from your community

Attract Contributors

[ ] author a CONTRIBUTING.md – contributor guidelines
[ ] check out some guides to contributing written by others to craft the contribution model you prefer
[ ] consider including details about your Code of Conduct (if you author one) or otherwise sythesizing the two into your CONTRIBUTING.md, so contributors know what is allowed/discouraged.

Define Goals

[ ] write a ROADMAP.md – to track development status, and targets
[ ] check out this simple guide to authoring a project roadmap

Engage Community

[ ] define key contributors to reach out to for clarification (maybe in a humans.txt file)
[ ] aim for a more complex mentorship program to foster community development
[ ] consider planning community calls/events/sprints
[ ] look into setting-up a forum like Discourse to facilitate conversation between community contributors via a mailing list and dynamic chat forum
[ ] consider setting up some software for managing contributions, like Phabricator, and/or SourceTree which help you track and view changes, compare diffs, author wikis, coordinate code/design review, set-up alerts.
[ ] write up a codeofconduct.md that articulates the behavior you will encourage, tolerate, and defend

abbycabs commented 8 years ago

I like this! :100:

One thing I'd like to see more of: good first bugs / mentored issues in the 'Setup Issues' or 'Engage Community' sections. I know that kind of thinking has been one of our bigger offerings in this space.

thanks for putting this together @auremoser :)

kaythaney commented 8 years ago

@zee-moz - looping you in here, too.

auremoser commented 8 years ago

Hey all, do we want to put this into a science lab gist or something, or a wiki on our "plan" repo, I'm open to whatever, I'm just worried we'll forget about it if we don't assign the issue to anyone

abbycabs commented 8 years ago

I like the wiki idea!

@zee-moz, this feels 'curriculum'-y, do you have a plan for where stuff like this goes?

zee-moz commented 8 years ago

Steph and I will figure out where it goes! We're making a plan for all resources so tag steph and assign me and we'll handle it! Thx

On Tuesday, December 22, 2015, Abigail Cabunoc Mayes < notifications@github.com> wrote:

I like the wiki idea!

@zee-moz https://github.com/zee-moz, this feels 'curriculum'-y, do you have a plan for where stuff like this goes?

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/mozillascience/plan/issues/34#issuecomment-166725942.

abbycabs commented 8 years ago

flagging @stephwright, thanks both :tada: :memo:

mozillascience / plan