Publishing software with an open source license is the definitive step, but it doesn’t create a community. Growing and scaling a successful open source software project requires building three on ramps for users, developers, and ultimately contributors. This short talk outlines the practices and patterns for these on ramps, demonstrating how they relate to one another. More importantly the talk sets the mind set to bring to the discussion. Delivered at the Community Leadership Summit 2017 http://bit.ly/2qiP3z0

1. Ask Not What Your
Community Can Do For You
Stephen R. Walli
@stephenrwalli

3. The Definitive Act

4. Stallman’s Brilliant Legal Hack

5. Choosing a License as Social Contract
License reciprocity is not about software freedom; it’s a community decision.

6. In the World of Atoms: Choosing Your Community

10. Three Sorts of Neighbours in Your Community
The people that simply want
to live there ….

11. Three Sorts of Neighbours in Your Community
The people that simply want
to live there ….
The people that report
potholes and trash, etc. ….

12. Three Sorts of Neighbours in Your Community
The people that simply want
to live there ….
The people that report
potholes and trash, etc. ….
The people that organize
the block party, pick up
trash, etc. ….

13. Three Sorts of People in Your Project Community
The people that simply want
to use the software
The people that report bugs,
offer ideas for features, etc.
The people that
contribute code,
documentation, use cases,
etc.

14. Rules of Thumb and Orders of Magnitude
For every 1000 users, …
… a 100 will file a bug, …
… out of which 10 give you
a patch, …

15. Rules of Thumb and Orders of Magnitude
For every 1000 users, …
… a 100 will file a bug, …
… out of which 10 give you
a patch, …
… out of which 1 actually read
your contribution guidelines.

16. Costs of Entering and Leaving Communities
High costs & commitments of a bricks and mortar world vs digital world
(It is relatively easy to move in the digital world if you’re not happy)
A lot of people are just there to live in the community as is
(“Freeloaders means you’re doing it right”)
People choose their communities to meet their needs
(”If you build it, they will come.” But only to solve for their own needs)
Forking is easy
(Living on a fork is expensive)

17. How do you encourage people to use your project?
(Because that’s where you’ll find your developers)
How do you encourage developers to experiment?
(Because these are your future contributors)
How do you encourage developers to share their work?
(Because this is the growth and success of your software)

18. What Does Your 10-Minute Rule Look Like?

19. How do you encourage people to use your project?
(How do you make it easy to install/configure/use the software?)
How do you encourage developers to experiment?
(How do you make it easy to build/test/experiment?)
How do you encourage developers to share their work?
(How do you make it easy to contribute?)

21. Q & A
Stephen R. Walli
@stephenrwalli

22. Photo Credits
• JFK Inauguration (Associated Press, used without permission)
• Paris Neighbourhood (Flickr, by Stephen R. Walli)
• Stop Watch (Flickr, by Chris Budd)