Creating open source software is a massive knowledge-sharing experience, says Deb Bryant, Senior Director of Red Hat's Open Source Program Office (OSPO) in a recent article at Opensource.com.
Over time, she says, open source communities have “honed their knowledge into best practices as a natural byproduct of the open collaboration and transparency passed on within their respective communities.”
In the article, Bryant looks at six ways knowledge-sharing communities develop, maintain, and distribute best practices. Examples of these different approaches include the following:
- The TODO Group’s Open Source Guides, which comprise a set of best practices to support any organization developing an OSPO. They “provide guidance and assurance around a process-driven approach to open source software development as influenced by an open source program or projects office in all types of organizations,” Bryant notes.
- The Open Source Initiative’s new Open Source Technology Management training series in partnership with Brandeis University “combines several goals, from professional to academic pursuits,” she says.
- The new IEEE SA OPEN collaboration platform “is intended to bridge the gap between standards developers and other open technical communities,” according to the website. And this approach “works by distilling the world of best practices and toolchains into a single set of solutions,” Bryant says.
Best practices span communities and are “useful beyond the unique needs of a single project,” Bryant notes. And, “as these practice-oriented communities focus on the power of collaboration, they generate creative content out of the experiences and voices in their domain.”
Read the complete article at Opensource.com.
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