Dr. Nic Williams discusses maintaining multiple open source projects, emphasizing the challenges and strategies for managing them over time. He highlights the importance of community self-sufficiency, efficient maintenance practices, and realistic expectations to achieve low maintenance costs. The document also includes practical tips for launching new projects and managing existing ones effectively.

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

2. Pacific Ocean Trips

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

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

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

6. Two types
(OSS project)
founders…

7. A. Nurture and converse
“Do you care?”

8. B. Previously A
“Do it yourself”

9. Life as an A-type is awesome…

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

12. “Saying Goodbye”

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. !
Disclaimer
My projects aren’t wildly popular

19. 80
60
40
20
0
mid-2007 mid-2008 mid-2009
I just have heaps of them

20. 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

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

22. A dog trainer
having a pet dog vs maintaining many dogs

23. A teacher
having a pet child vs maintaining many children

24. An OSS owner
having a pet project vs maintaining many projects

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

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

27. Maintenance Goal:
Zero Effort

28. Aim: Manage expectations

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

30. Aim: Community self-sufficiency

31. Centralised patches

32. Centralised patches

33. $ 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

34. Add: Admins/contributors

35. Aim: Zero maintenance cost

36. 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

37. 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

38. Packaging: ChocTop for DMGs

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

40. 5 mins to run tests
30 mins looking at bug reports
Aim: zero defects

41. 5 mins to run tests
0 7.5 15 22.5 30
30 mins looking at bug reports
Aim: zero defects

42. $ 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

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

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

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

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