FOSS
Participation
Opening Your Sources
FOSS
Free and Open Source Software
There are people who will fight you over these definitions. Ignore them for now.
What Is It
FOSS can be any type of software that has available sourcecode.
Public sourcecode makes software better, more reliable, and more portable.
Examples
Operating Systems
Programming Languages
HTTP Servers
Web Browsers
Development Tools
More Sources
Communities
Real and virtual communities of developers, designers, writers, evangelists, engineers, hackers, and more.
The Project Page
Most FOSS projects have a project page.
- Downloads
- Documentation
- Issue Tracker
- Linkage
The Mailing List
A long-lived online forum for users and developers.
- Feature requests
- Support requests
- Developer forum
The IRC Channel
An short-lived, but tight online feedback channel for developers and power users.
The Code Sprint
An extremely condensed period dedicated to developing code.
OSGeo Code Sprint: 2013, Boston MA
Contributions
-
CLA
Contributor's License Agreement -
CCLA
Corporate Contributor's License Agreement
License Matters
Which license will you use?
GPL, GPL2, GPL3, LGPL, AGPL, Apache, MIT, BSD, Eclipse
These are not set in stone; you can change them later (even ask other projects to change theirs)!
Digression
My experience with PostGIS
Join the Revolution
Citizenship during the bit-liberation
Communicate It
Be flexible. Adapt to the medium that your project uses most. Be prepared to skype at 5am if you have to.
Document It
You may have added the coolest feature in the world to Ω software project, but if nobody else can use it, it's worthless.
Support It
Now that you wrote the coolest feature in the Ω software project, be prepared to stand behind it. Even when users do stupid things with it.
Investigate It
Be prepared to follow the rabbit down the hole. Ask questions, read docs, and have a sense of humility.
Share It
When you learn something new, or build something awesome, share that back with the community. Blog it, tweet it, plus it, instagram it, etc.
Teach It
When you meet someone online, and they are curious about the Ω software project, show them the path.