June 2017 News: Survey reveals number one problem in open source
Documentation is a big challenge, but a little funding can help a lot.
Documentation is a big challenge, but a little funding can help a lot.
In collaboration with researchers from academia, industry, and the community, GitHub designed a survey to gather high quality and novel data on open source software development practices and communities.
The findings clearly highlight the importance of documentation, community moderation, and diversity in the open source community.
Many FLOSS maintainers find these areas challenging, but the good news is they all can be greatly improved with a bit of funding!
“GitHub’s 2017 Open Source Survey found that incomplete and confusing documentation is the number one problem encountered in open source.”
Paying for help with documentation can provide huge value — and it doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. A recent article by Mikeal from the Node.js Foundation has more info, and a list of documentation service providers.
Want ideas for how to spend your collective funds to address the important areas identified in the survey? Check out our guide.
Collective Highlights
Congratulations to Octobox for hitting an important milestone: covering costs! Financial sustainability is helping them help you take control of your GitHub notifications.
Welcome LibreNMS! A new collective that’s already off to a great start. They’re on a mission to provide a fully featured network monitoring system.
The AFFCNY has launched 18 collectives to transparently manage the grants they give to foster families for “exceptional dedication, commitment and passion.”
New Donate Widget
Make it easier for supporters to donate to your collective with one of our handy new buttons. See more available widgets.
The Blind Spot of Silicon Valley
Open Collective co-founder Xavier thinks traditional VC is going to be disrupted by more distributed, flexible forms of funding.