Hi,<p>I have an idea for a potentially interesting and useful project.<p>My experience in the area of open source software is limited. Therefor I am thankful for any tips, resources etc.<p>Regards,
Phil
Release early for feedback (both on the code, and the concept). Try to make the (technical, social) culture explicit from the outset. Don't be afraid to pivot. Seek advice on technical issues - if there aren't any early contributors, try resources like <a href="http://codereview.stackexchange.com/" rel="nofollow">http://codereview.stackexchange.com/</a>.<p>This is Linus' announcement of Linux:<p><a href="http://twovoyagers.com/blinkynet.net/comp/linux002.html" rel="nofollow">http://twovoyagers.com/blinkynet.net/comp/linux002.html</a><p>"I've enjouyed doing it, and somebody might enjoy looking at it and even modifying it for their own needs. It is still small enough to understand, use and modify, and I'm looking forward to any comments you might have."
One rather dull, but important, aspect to think about early on is licensing. More permissive licenses seem to be preferred today, especially if you want submissions from corporate entities.
Related to that is keeping some kind of contributors record (the important point being you at least have a valid email for every person that submitted something).
Write a proof of concept and toss it on github. If you think it will attract a lot of people, create a mailing list via something like google groups. Send info to tech websites and blog about it. That is how everyone else does it.<p>Disclaimer: I'm a comaintainer of 2 large open source projects:
<a href="https://github.com/saltstack/salt" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/saltstack/salt</a>
<a href="https://github.com/graphite-project" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/graphite-project</a>
I wrote up a blog post a couple of months ago, full of pointers to useful resources for getting started with Open Source. Instead of repeating what I said there, I'll just share the link:<p><a href="http://fogbeam.blogspot.com/2014/08/starting-points-for-learning-about-open.html" rel="nofollow">http://fogbeam.blogspot.com/2014/08/starting-points-for-lear...</a><p>I think you'll find (some|a lot|all) of that stuff useful.