I held a talk about things to consider, when you’re starting an open source project and what you can do to keep it alive. The talk is in german (sorry, no subtitles, but the talk is the insparation for this blog, so you can more or less read what I have talked about here). I have fixed the sound, because the microphone had some minor problems. There are a few minutes where the sound is a little bit crappy.

See the video here: Froscon “Open Source Projekte starten und am Leben halten” auf Vimeo

froscon · news · talk · video

For us developers, it’s easy to write the code, but that is not all a good project needs to do. You have to provide information on your project, the releases, the schedules and how to use your software. That’s a bunch of work, how can you fulfill the user expectations?
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early-phase · hosting · introduction · talk

Choosing the right scheme for the version numbers is not as easy as it sounds. There are many implications that you may not think of in the first place. Selecting a version scheme without thinking is like selecting a name without thinking and you don’t wouldn’t do that, would you?

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communication · early-phase · introduction · naming · release-planning · talk

early-phase · introduction · release-planning · talk

Sometimes people start to behave weird when they are in control or able to influence others. They act rude, or for example are mean to their users or project members… So, take a second and reflect if you are doing similar things and hurting your project and reputation.

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communication · early-phase · introduction · social-skills · talk

Your project published a few releases and a small developer team is forming. You’re still doing the communication and web site maintenance. Time for real development is becoming smaller and smaller. Are you doing it right? (more…)

early-phase · external-help · introduction · social-skills · talk

This blog post deals with the mistakes and opportunities you might encounter when you’re trying to integrate new people in the project. The problems range from a too high entrance barrier to overly caring project leads that suffocate new members…

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communication · early-phase · introduction · social-skills · talk

This blog article deals with the question, where you might host your project. Whether self hosting, free hosting and if free hosting, where? There are somethings you should think about.

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early-phase · hosting · introduction · talk

This blog post deals with the problem of finding the right point in time to go public with your project. When should you write the first announcements, when and how to ask for help… When should you go public with your idea for a project? The sooner you go public, the sooner you’ll get people involved to help you. At least this is what you might think.

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introduction · starting-phase · talk

This article will deal with the problem of finding the right name for your project. There are quite a few pitfalls that you have to take care of. For example free domains, names that can be translated in foreign languages to bad words etc.

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introduction · naming · starting-phase · talk

This article covers a few additional things that you should think of before starting a project, like whether to join a project instead of starting it. The goal is to give some hints, so you don’t start a project and after you have spent a lot of your time, you’ll find a project that fits your needs and you have wasted a lot of your precious spare time.

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introduction · starting-phase · talk

This article describes a few things you should consider before you start a project, like when to go public, which group of people you are targeting etc. The goal is to give some insights. It’s not getting very deep, because there will be dedicated articles for some chapters later, that are more detailed.

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introduction · starting-phase · talk