Issues specific to Open Source are well-covered in this book. I found the section titled "Handling Difficult People" especially useful; his advice in this dodgy area is to act eloquent and keep feedback directed at the problem, not the person. If the person *is* the problem, nip in-public issues in the bud and contact the person directly to resolve the personal issue(s).

Fogel presents lots of down and dirty day-to-day details on how to create excellent software. Not just Open Source, either... the transparency built into the processes he describes are also useful within a company firewall.

Fogel places a huge emphasis on development by random unsalaried people, but I feel that most important and rapid development is due to corporate sponsorship.

Overall: excellent. Read it cover to cover, refer back to it often.

If you are thinking of starting/managing a project in an "open-source" model, this is the book you MUST read.

The book is very well written and goes over lessons learned of others that created their own open-source projects. Believe me... every step so you don't have to guess anything!

How to start, how to document, where to deploy the project, what people to invite, whether or not coding standards are necessary, democracy versus dictatorship, all of these questions are answered inside.

A friend of mine has told me that much of the information in this book can be seen for free in video in Google. It's worth looking for.

I read the book in 5 hours and i think my time was very well invested. I now believe that this model is not only suitable for small projects but to larger projects. The complexity of the system will not the an issue if you apply the rules in the book. I still have to try it though... ;-)

Just yesterday I was talking to a friend about this book and we discovered each other very glad with it. First of all, the author has a lot of experience with the theme in question. Furthermore, Karl Fogel is very compelling with words. He knows how to write down his experience in a way that is pleasant, certainly due to a lot of writes he had made through plenties of open source projects.

With this book you will be in touch with topics like the needed infra-structure to setup open source projects, the dinamics of the open source community, strategies for packaging and releasing software, common issues that arise in open source daily development and how to workaround then, a brief about licenses (with properly links for more information on this topic); just to highlight some aspects.

This book was the first hand someone land me into the open source world. It's helping me in three ways: to extract more from open source softwares that already exist, to start my own open source project, and to look at software development through a new, different, and till now better perspective.

Hope this review helps you!

If you have already read pretty much everything that there is to be read about why you'd want to start, manage, fund or participate in an Open Source project, but want to know everything about how best to do it, then Karl Fogel's Producing Open Source Software is the book for you.

Drawing from his extensive experience with the Subversion project, Fogel provides in this book a comprehensive overview of all aspects of Open Source software development, covering technical, social, political, economical, legal, and managerial aspects.

While the book is more aimed at medium-to-large scale projects, especially those involving some kind of corporate entity, there is much in it that is applicable to most projects, excluding maybe only those little, one-man efforts that rarely become successful. But if you are the originator of one of the latter and, should it suddenly attract a wide following, you'd better be prepared to face the unavoidable problems that popularity brings.This book will come in handy in this case.

Here are, in my opinion, the strong points of the book:

* Providing a concise, yet comprehensive, overview of all aspects of Open Source development. This is really the manual of open development.

* Demonstrating that there is much in open development that is similar to more traditional, corporate-style software development (you cannot always rely on good will and volunteers), but also much that is different, in motivation, rewards and objectives.

* Putting the accent on the human aspect of development: mutual respect between participants is often the deciding factor in determining whether a project will thrive or fail. Since even the best of intentions sometimes are not enough to foster a peaceful, productive and collaborative environment, Producing Open Source Software contains a lot of useful, practical advice that you can follow if you want to keep developers happy and motivated.

It's easy to make the mistake of viewing this book as "too fluffy" or perhaps too soft to be of any use to the practical user or developer of open source software. Nothing could be further from the truth: in a classic open source way, the author has compressed man-centuries of OS community experience into a practical working guide for anyone who wants to do something serious in this area.

The book impressed me by the breadth and depth of the thinking that must have gone on before it was written. Mr. Fogel being an active open-source developer, I was at first suspicious that he might just be presenting his way of doing things as gospel. Quickly, though, he convinced me that he reflects his ways more profoundly than most other people I know, myself included. Maybe that, in itself, is a consequence of open-source development processes?

sound advice for an oss project

please note that the entire text of this book is avaiable online - but the paper book is ofcourse nicer to read!

Producing open source software is not an easy task. Without the management and insight of a team of developers or the money that can go along with getting software out the door, designing and developing open source software can be a tough task that many managers wouldn't want the challenge of taking on. Challenges abound in the open source world, and that is why the book 'Producing Open Source Software : How to Run a Successful Free Software Project' by Karl Fogel is a welcome addition to the library of software books out on the market.

Discussion about how to recruit developers to work on your project to successful development and testing to releasing your beta software to finally getting it out the door, the 411 is here and it's GOOD.

Probably the #1 problem/issue with developing open source software is communication and I like the discussion about this concept more than anything else in this book. The author makes suggestions and recommendations that any individual who is managing such a project would be remiss to not pay attention to and start implementing immediately.

If you work on open source software and want to improve the process of starting at B (Beginning) and getting to E (End), take a look at this book. The ideas are well worth the read and it's an enjoyable ride to take.

**** RECOMMENDED

Producing Open Source Software : How to Run a Successful Free Software Project (Paperback)

Are you a software developer or manager who is considering starting an open source project, or has started one and is wondering what to do now? Well, you're in luck! Author Karl Fogel, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that will be helpful to people who just want to participate in an open source project, but have never done so before.

Fogel, begins with a brief history of free software, and an overview of the open source world today. Next, the author shows you how to get an open source project off on the right foot, including gathering developers, choosing a license, and announcing the project. Then, he takes an in-depth look at the tools a project needs to function smoothly, including communications, version control, and bug tracking software. The author continues by showing you how to set up formal and informal political structures to enable project members to work together and achieve consensus on important issues. In addition, the author next explains the why and how to have a commercial relationship with an open source project. He also provides a guide to productive conduct in project forums, covering both the social and technical aspects of communications. Next, the author shows you how to manage regular releases of open source software, without disrupting the development cycles of the volunteer participants. Then, he helps you understand why volunteer developers do what they do, and how to treat them in such a way that they keep doing it. Finally, he shows you how to evaluate and choose free software licenses, including an in-depth examination of license compatibility issues.

The good thing about this excellent book, is that prior experience with open source software, as either a user or developer, is not necessary. Furthermore, the author has made an extra effort to label sections clearly, because of the wide range of user experience.

Karl Fogel's Producing Open Course Software: How To Run A Successful Free Software Project provides advice on how to organize and run an open source software project, and comes from a developer who has worked in open source on many such projects. From providing developers with technical resources and handling communications to tracking and repairing bugs and funding open source projects, this is a treasure trove of detail highly recommended for any overseeing an open source project.

Didn't expect much useful information. But somehow this guy manages to talk about soft issues such as communication and politics without getting lost in the clouds. The book is more of a field guide than an anthropological study, so instead of speculation about what keeps participants motivated, you'll find practical advice how to keep people motivated and how to deal with specific problems. Should be read not only by people running open source projects, but by anyone who is somehow involved in an open source projects, and perhaps by everyone doing software development, too!

Seems like everyone wants to have a open source project these days. But it's not as easy to run a successful project as you might think. In order to get started on the right foot and increase your chance of success, I would recommend reading Karl Fogel's Producing Open Source Software - How To Run A Successful Free Software Project.

Contents: Introduction; Getting Started; Technical Infrastructure; Social and Political Infrastructure; Money; Communications; Packaging, Releasing, and Daily Development; Managing Volunteers; Licenses, Copyrights, and Patents; Free Version Control Systems; Free Bug Trackers; Why Should I Care What Color the Bikeshed Is?; Example Instructions for Reporting Bugs; Index

Fogel definitely has the "cred" to write this book. He's spent five years working on the Subversion open source version control system. While not (yet?) the default open source version control system out there, it's rapidly gaining traction. As a result, you figure that Fogel and company must have done a few things right along the way. He does a very nice job in explaining what makes for a successful open source project in terms of tools, structure, and most importantly, culture. He identifies open source projects that have successfully created a culture that encourages participation without dictatorial control. He even addresses how to deal with people issues like monopolizing discussion boards. Those are items that most techies aren't good at, and having a guide like this is priceless.

At times the book seems to be rather dense, as in a lot of text with little to break it up. I think it's because there's no real use of graphics or code samples to a large degree. I wouldn't expect it in a book like this, either. But still, it's just one of those things that came to mind as I was reading it. If you have the same nagging feeling and can quickly identify it, then it's easy to deal with the problem.

Very valuable information, all condensed into a single volume for easy reference. I'd maintain that anyone looking to start an open source project with hopes of long-term viability would do well to read and digest this book before starting. You'll make fewer false starts and raise your chances of success...

Karl Fogel does a fantastic job of covering everything you need to know about open source projects. It contains everything you need to know about contributing to an open source projects: how to interact with other contributors, working with version control, contributing code, etc. He also provides an excellent guide for running an open source project. The book covers a great deal of ground, giving excellent advice on a wide range of topics: selecting a license; maintaining a mailing list, defect tracking system and version control repository; providing a website; interacting with committers; dealing with technical people; gathering consensus; and understanding important project management concepts. Karl is a veteran of several highly visible and widely used open source projects, and clearly draws on his extensive experiences (both positive and negative). The style is pleasantly conversational, and it's clear that he really knows what he's talking about and is speaking from a position of authority.

(Full Disclosure: I was a technical reviewer for this book, and was thoroughly impressed with it while reviewing it.)