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1. Introduction ...................................... ....... . 1 H istory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . 4 The Situation Today ...................................... ...... 14 2. Getting Started ......................................... . 17 First, Look Around ...................................... ....... 19 Starting from W hat You Have ..................................... 20 Choosing a License and Applying It ................................ 33 Setting the Tone ...................................... ......... 35 Announcing ...................... ........ .................... 43 3. Technical Infrastructure ................ ................... . 45 What a Project Needs ........................................... 47 Mailing Lists ................................................ 48 Version Control ...................................... .......... 60 Bug Tracker ................................................. 73 IRC/Real-Time Chat Systems ........ ............... ............. . 79 W ikis ...................................... ....... ......... . 82 W eb Site ...................................... ............... 84 4. Social and Political Infrastructure .......................... 87 Forkability ........................................ ... . . . ... 88 Benevolent Dictators ........................................... 89 Consensus-Based Democracy .................................... 90 W riting It All Down ..................... .................. . .. . 97 5. Money ................. .............................. 99 Types of Involvement .......................................... 101 Hire for the Long Term ....................................... . 103 Appear as Many, Not as One ................. ................. 104 Be Open About Your Motivations ................................. 105 Money Can't Buy You Love ...................................... 107 Contracting ...................................... ..... ..... . 109 Funding Non-Programming Activities ............................. 113 Marketing .............................. ................... 117 6. Communications ...................................... . 121 You Are What You Write ........................................ 122 Avoiding Common Pitfalls ...................................... 132 Difficult People .................................. . . . . ....... . 139 Handling Growth ...................................... ....... 142 No Conversations in the Bug Tracker .............................. 151 Publicity ................................... . . . .......... . 153 7. Packaging, Releasing, and Daily Development .................. 163 Release Numbering ........................................... 164 Release Branches ............................................ 170 Stabilizing a Release ....................................... . . 173 Packaging ................................................. 178 Testing and Releasing ...................................... ... 185 Maintaining Multiple Release Lines ............................. 187 Releases and Daily Development ................................. 189 8. Managing Volunteers..................................... 193 Getting the Most Out of Volunteers ............................. 194 Share Management Tasks as Well as Technical Tasks .............. 208 Transitions ...................................... ........... . 216 Com m itters ................. . ............................ . 219 Credit .................................................... . 223 Forks .......................................... .... . ........ 225 9. Licenses, Copyrights, and Patents ........................... 231 Term inology ......................................... . . . ... .231 Aspects of Licenses ........................................... 235 The GPL and License Compatibility ................ ............. 236 Choosing a License ............... . ......................... 238 Copyright Assignment and Ownership ............................ 241 Dual Licensing Schemes ............... . .................... . 242 Patents ....................................... ........... 243 Further Resources ............... . ................... ...... 246 A. Free Version Control Systems............. .............. 249 B. Free BugTrackers ................. .................. . 257 C. Why Should I Care What Color the Bikeshed Is? ............... 261 D. Example Instructions for Reporting Bugs ...................... 269