Successful open source software projects tend to develop committed communities of developers and users. These communities can include everyone from hobbyists to professional software writers to end users. They may form naturally or they may be significantly assisted by a large corporation. These resources explore the idea of community, how to participate in an open source software project, and how to best develop a community around your own project.

Briefing Notes

• How to build an open source community
• Essential tools for running a community-led project
• A guide to participating in an open source software community
• Community lessons for research infrastructure
• Community source vs open source
• The community source development model
• Roles in open source projects
• Sustainability lessons for research infrastructure
• Open source and research infrastructure
• Sustainable open source
• Open Source Leadership: Debian

Open Development

• Avoiding abandon-ware: getting to grips with the open development method
• Meritocrats, cluebats and the open development method: an interview with Justin Erenkrantz

Governance

• Governance models
• Meritocratic governance model
• Benevolent dictator governance model

Case Studies

• Planning for sustainability
• Wookie: a case study in sustainability
• WebPA: the road to sustainability

Event Reports

• Engaging developers workshop, Oxford, 9 October 2009
• From a trickle to a flood: building wide open communities in open source - Community and Open Source Development Workshop, Oxford, 20 October 2008
• Building Open Source Communities: a one-day OSS Watch conference held on 4 July 2005 in Edinburgh presentations (pdf):
• What is an open source software community? Sebastian Rahtz, Manager, OSS Watch
• Licences, Features, and Community: The Path to Sustainability Jim Farmer, Community Liaison, Sakai Educational Partners Program
• Co-located agile development Helen Sharp, The Open University
• Serving Maths: Experiences from a JISC Distributed e-Learning Project Gustav Delius, University of York
• Life and times in the Apache community Andrew Savory, Director, Luminas
• MoodleMoot: Meeting Real People from a Virtual Community Sean Keogh, UK Moodle Partner

Book Reviews

• Producing Open Source Software - book review

Studies

• The JISC Virtual Research Environment Phase Two Programme: Attitudes to and Awareness of Open Development

Handouts

• Building Communties Around Free & Open Source Software