Open Source Projects - Beyond Code

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What Makes a Good Open Source Project?

We talked in Chapter 1, The Whats and Whys of Open Source, about the whats and whys of open source and looked a bit at the how in the context of existing open source projects. In this chapter, we will look at what makes a good open source project. We will look at some of the key characteristics of what a good open source project looks like, some of the pitfalls I’ve seen when open source projects aren’t created with the idea of building community, and, finally, some patterns and anti-patterns for open source projects.

The concept of a good open source project is by no means a trivial one. I get asked this question routinely, usually in a conversation that goes something like this:

Person: “So, how does ...