Open Source Com­mu­nity Building

von Mat­thias Stür­mer | 02.03.2005

Buil­ding an active and hel­pful com­mu­nity around an open source pro­ject is a com­plex task for its lea­ders. The­re­fore inves­ti­ga­ti­ons in this work are inten­ded to define the opti­mum star­ting posi­tion of an open source pro­ject and to iden­tify recom­men­da­ble pro­mo­ting actions by pro­ject lea­ders to enlarge com­mu­nity size in a healthy way.

For this paper eight inter­views with com­mit­ted rep­re­sen­ta­ti­ves of suc­cess­ful open source pro­jects have led to over 12 hours of con­ver­sa­tion about com­mu­nity buil­ding. Ana­ly­sing the state­ments of these expe­ri­en­ced com­mu­nity mem­bers expo­sed hel­pful activi­ties that led to the pre­sently pros­pe­ring com­mu­nities of their pro­jects. Sum­ma­ri­zing the con­clu­si­ons of this qua­li­ta­tive rese­arch a table with con­di­ti­ons for suc­cess­ful open source pro­ject initia­li­sa­tion and a subject-​level pro­mo­tion matrix of com­mu­nity buil­ding could be crea­ted. They include sug­ges­ti­ons on how to start a new open source pro­ject and how to improve and increase the com­mu­nity of an alre­ady advan­ced open source project.

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