Living with
1000 Open Source
Projects
Dr Nic Williams, tallest person at Mocra
@drnic · http://drnicwilliams.com · http://mocra.com

Pacific Ocean Trips

Pacific Ocean Trips
RubyConf 2007:
9am Sunday 50% Awake

Pacific Ocean Trips
RubyConf 2007:
9am Sunday 50% Awake
FutureRuby 2009:
10am Sunday 50% Canadian

Pacific Ocean Trips
RubyConf 2007:
9am Sunday 50% Awake
FutureRuby 2009:
10am Sunday 50% Canadian

Two types
(OSS project)
founders…

A. Nurture and converse
“Do you care?”

B. Previously A
“Do it yourself”

Life as an A-type is awesome…

Life as an A-type is awesome…
until it is not

“Saying Goodbye”

Jamis vs Dr Nic
Proof of Jamis’s awesomeness
Downloads
500000
375000
250000
125000
0
Capistrano Composite Keys NewGem RubiGen
source: http://gems.rubyforge.org/stats.html

Jamis vs Dr Nic
Proof of Jamis’s awesomeness
Downloads
500000
375000
250000
125000
0
Capistrano Composite Keys NewGem RubiGen
source: http://gems.rubyforge.org/stats.html

Jamis vs Dr Nic
Proof of Jamis’s awesomeness
Downloads
500000
375000
250000
125000
0
Capistrano Composite Keys NewGem RubiGen
source: http://gems.rubyforge.org/stats.html

Jamis vs Dr Nic
Proof of Jamis’s awesomeness
Downloads
500000
375000
250000
125000
0
Capistrano Composite Keys NewGem RubiGen
source: http://gems.rubyforge.org/stats.html

Jamis vs Dr Nic
Proof of Jamis’s awesomeness
Downloads
500000
375000
250000
125000
0
Capistrano Composite Keys NewGem RubiGen
source: http://gems.rubyforge.org/stats.html

!
Disclaimer
My projects aren’t wildly popular

80
60
40
20
0
mid-2007 mid-2008 mid-2009
I just have heaps of them

Some formulas…
X projects/yr x 40 years = ?
5 projects/yr x 40 years = 200
25 projects/yr x 40 years = 1000
1000 projects x ½hr/wk = 500hr/wk
There are only 168 hrs in a week

OSS projects don’t scale
but neither does raising
pets nor children

A dog trainer
having a pet dog vs maintaining many dogs

A teacher
having a pet child vs maintaining many children

An OSS owner
having a pet project vs maintaining many projects

What to maintain?
pet projects and libraries you need each day

and abandon the rest
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robbyrussell/243693247/

Maintenance Goal:
Zero Effort

Aim: Manage expectations

• Publish project status
• Facilitate group
therapy
• Forward emails to
mailing list
Aim: Reduce bad karma

Aim: Community self-sufficiency

Centralised patches

Centralised patches

$ gem install defunkt-github
# super lazy
$ cd your/project
$ gh pull username --merge
$ rake test
$ git push
# update History.txt for next release
Use: Command line tools

Add: Admins/contributors

Aim: Zero maintenance cost

require 'rubygems'
gem 'hoe', '>= 2.1.0'
require 'hoe'
Hoe.plugin :newgem
Hoe.plugin :cucumberfeatures
Hoe.spec 'looksee' do
developer 'George Ogata', 'george.ogata@gmail.com'
end
Packaging: Hoe/Echoe for Gems

ChocTop.new do |s|
s.host = 'commitchat.com'
s.base_url = 'http://commitchat.com/dl'
s.remote_dir = '/opt/apps/commitchat/dl'
s.background_file = "dmgbg.png"
s.volume_icon = 'VolumeIcon.icns'
s.app_icon_position = [106, 83]
s.applications_icon_position = [422, 83]
s.applications_icon = "dmgappico.png"
end
Packaging: ChocTop for DMGs

Packaging: ChocTop for DMGs

• Test frameworks: ...............
• Reuse processes: rake
• Create tools: newgem
• Promote your process: blog
Aim: zero process cost

5 mins to run tests
30 mins looking at bug reports
Aim: zero defects

5 mins to run tests
0 7.5 15 22.5 30
30 mins looking at bug reports
Aim: zero defects

$ cucumber features/development.feature
Scenario: Generate RubyGem
Given this project is active project folder
And "pkg" folder is deleted
When I invoke task "rake gem"
Then folder "pkg" is created
And file with name matching "pkg/*.gem" is created
1 scenario (1 passed)
6 steps (6 passed)
QA test packaging

Aim for zero
• Don’t use it? Don’t maintain it
• Manage expectations
• Community self-sufficiency
• Zero process cost
• Zero defects

Use your spare time
• Find a hobby
• Talk to your spouse
• Create more projects

Create a new project
newgem my_project
cd my_project
git init
git add .
git commit -m "initial"
github create-from-local

Thank you Canada
Dr Nic Williams
drnicwilliams.com · @drnic