Producing Open Source Software

Producing Open Source Software is a great book by Karl Fogel, on how free software projects function and how to keep them functioning. "How to Run a Successful Free Software Project." Some ideas are useful for CouchSurfing right now, and some could be of help to make CS even more free and open.

It's available online.

What a project needs

 * Website
 * but not CouchSurfing.com, could be wiki or dev-wiki
 * Mailing lists
 * and not the CS groups please
 * Version control
 * Bug tracking
 * Real-time chat
 * NO Flash!
 * IRC, freenode? #couchsurfing (welcome to check out #couchsurfing on IRCnet!) Or some more closed system

Managing Volunteers

 * Getting the Most Out of Volunteers
 * Delegation
 * Distinguish clearly between inquiry and assignment
 * Follow up after you delegate
 * Notice what people are interested in
 * Praise and Criticism
 * Prevent Territoriality
 * The Automation Ratio


 * Automated testing

Treat Every User as a Potential Volunteer


 * Share Management Tasks as Well as Technical Tasks
 * Patch Manager
 * Translation Manager
 * Documentation Manager
 * Issue Manager
 * FAQ Manager


 * Transitions
 * Committers
 * Choosing Committers
 * Revoking Commit Access
 * Partial Commit Access
 * Dormant Committers
 * Avoid Mystery


 * Credit