What Makes an Open Source Project Successful? 201
Posted
by
Cliff
from the what-do-you-measure-your-software-by dept.
from the what-do-you-measure-your-software-by dept.
crowston asks: "There have been a number of discussions on Slashdot and elsewhere about how good projects work (e.g., Talk To a Successful Free Software Project Leader), but less about how to tell if things are going well in the first place. While this may seem obvious, most traditional definitions of software project success seem inapplicable (e.g., profit) or nearly impossible to measure for most projects (e.g., market share, user satisfaction, organizational impact). In an organizational setting, developers can get feedback from their customers, the marketplace, managers, etc.; if you're Apache, you can look at Netcraft's survey of server usage; but what can the rest do? Is it enough that you're happy with the code? I suspect that the release-early-and-often philosophy plays an important role here. I'm asking not to pick winners and losers (i.e., NOT a ranking of projects), but to understand what developers look at to know when things are going well and when they're not."
Re:Ambition and Drive (Score:5, Interesting)
The real question is how do you determine if you are successful without having profits.
Its simple. Open source is scratching an itch, right? Is the itch scratched? If yes, then its a success. If it doesn't do what someone else wants, they can add it in, or ask you to do it.
Popularity != Success
Re:Seems straightforward (Score:3, Interesting)
milestones and traffic (Score:4, Interesting)
Traffic: both developer and user. Is there a relatively continuous level of input/interest in the project? If developers don't want to develop, and users don't want to use, it's probably going nowhere, even if it's the best thing since the BeOS.
Mailing List to measure success (Score:3, Interesting)
It should be... (Score:3, Interesting)
Useful...to someone (this is open to broad interpetation).
It should have the goal of attaining at least as much funtionality as any of the software that it is replacing.
Other examples of good OSS is squid, openoffice and, yes, even Linux (Red Hat 9 is least as functional as Win98SE, and that is just from an end user standpoint).
Just my W.O.
WAR TUX!!!
what I do (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course this leaves out win32 users who just download the binary, but oh well.
Re:What makes an OSS project successful? (Score:4, Interesting)
Get ready for the troll mods, though. That's not the kind of truth that goes down well 'round here =)
Simple (Score:3, Interesting)
Quality, because you want something that works. Usefulness, because else there is no use to the code. Progress, because you want the project to evolve constantly. Maintenance, because you don't want to use software that has a buggy, unmaintained codebase.
Success with Open Source (Score:3, Interesting)
Fun (Score:5, Interesting)
I've commited some of my spare time to open source projects and even started a few pet projects of my own. While success can sometimes be measured by number of users, or downloads, or mailing list traffic, I think it's worthwhile to step back from the project and make sure you're still having fun. At least that's important for those of us who develop open source software as a hobby as opposed to those who do it for a living (and there are many more hobbiest out there). If suddenly you find yourself dreading to read your mailing list or fire up you text editor or IDE, then you know it's time to take a break or re-evaluate the project.
Then again, every developer and project has different goals and really it's only by these individual metrics that a project or individual's success can be measured.
There was an interesting thread on the Jakarta general mailing list about this a couple months ago. You might want to check it out. [mail-archive.com]
Re:By feedback (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:By feedback (Score:3, Interesting)
Win friends and influence people (Score:4, Interesting)
But let's say your real goal is to be a respected member of the open source community (which, as we all know, leads to fame, groupies, and vast wealth). What should you do to meet that goal? (Actually, there are several ways, but I'll only talk about ones which involve starting an open source programming project, since that is what the original question was about.)
First, your project needs to be something which other people will want to use. Don't write another mail reader. Write something new, at least new to open source. If you don't know what people want, you'll have to ask them. In general, your project needs to either be an open source replacement for an existing proprietary program, or it needs to create a new and interesting niche.
Second, your project needs to work, at least minimally. You have to be able to get it to the point of working, either by writing it yourself or talking people you know into pitching in. If your project doesn't work at all, few people will contribute to make it better.
Third, you need to sell your project by mentioning it on Slashdot, on relevant mailing lists, and on relevant web sites. You need to do this respectfully. One approach is ``I'm looking for suggestions on how to improve my FOOBAR program. It can already do AMAZING THINGS, and I'd like to know how to make it work better for specific users.''
If you follow these simple steps, you too will be on the road to fame and fortune! When you get there, just don't forget the little people who helped you along the way.
When other projects mention you in FAQs... (Score:4, Interesting)
It was a strange thrill to see ESD called out by name in the Quake (2?) for Linux documentation from Id software. I knew the project was onto something when Id deemed it necessary to warn people that my simple software audio mixer would interfere with the audio in Quake. They were expecting it to be enough of a problem to head it off in the official documentation. That's a user base.
If you have a program for Linux, inclusion in one or more major distributions is also a sure sign that lots of people are getting some use out of your program. If that many people are using your program, it may even outlive your ability to contribute to it...
Itch --- fun --- fame! (Score:2, Interesting)
- It scratches the itch
- It's fun to do
- Other people like it
- Other people send in contributions!
- It makes you famous!!!