Contribution Pack

I was listening to LugRadio earlier on and the discussion about Open Source and participation by everyone. It got me thinking back to my idea for a book on open source contribution and how to get involved. Now I’m thinking about some thing both smaller and larger in scale.

How about a contributors pack? To help give something back to those considering contributing to your project. I envisage having a leaflet, which would take on the form of a generic template, stylable to your project which hold information about every aspect of the project that needs help. For example documentation, packaging, coding, bug fixing, advocacy etc.

The contributors pack could be online, or even include some paper pamphlets on request, printable via lulu for example. It would contain information about processes such as MOTU, and detail the tools people use for tasks, and where to get them, how to file a bug correctly. The possibilities are endless. I know it took me a long time to learn some processes, and the thing is, I was taking up valuable people’s time when if the right resources were available I could have just read them online, or in a leaflet. Each team in a project could have their own leaflet with contact information, processes, etc.

If you think this idea has merit, I urge you to comment here.

On another note, thanks Lugradio. Maybe my place isn’t so much a doer, as a proposer of ideas. That one’s for you Bacon.