Author: Ben Cotton

Ben was most recently the Fedora Program Manager. He is the author of Program Management for Open Source Projects. Ben is an Open Organization Ambassador and frequent conference speaker. His personal website is Funnel Fiasco.

Does your project say “no” enough?

Saying “no” well keeps your project is focused & maintainable. This may put some people off, but it helps your project stay healthy long-term.

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Preparing for Hacktoberfest contributors

If your project is participating In Hacktoberfest, you’ll want to make sure you’re ready for an influx of new contributors.

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New logo!

Duck Alignment Academy now has a logo!

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For companies, community should be “us” not “them”

Referring to the community as “them” as if there’s no overlap encourages treating company & community interests as separate, harming long-term sustainability.

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Celebrate Hacktoberfest with 30% off

Save 30% when you buy “Forge Your Future With Open Source” or “Program Management for Open Source Projects” through the end of October.

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What are you optimizing?

If you start optimizing for a process and then discover you’re optimizing for the wrong thing, you’ve wasted time.

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One approach to AI contributions

All communities will need an AI contribution policy at some point, and the Apache Software Foundation’s example is a good one to follow.

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Don’t try to guess contributor affiliations

When asked “how many $company employees contribute to this project?” the best answer is “I don’t know and there’s no good way to find out.”

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Don’t launch a communication tool without a moderation plan

Well-understood and consistent moderation practices go a long way toward reducing hard feelings in your community.

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Choosing between wiki- and git-based documentation

What should you choose for your documentation: a wiki or text files hosted in a git repo and rendered by another tool?

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