john@jmchilton.net %
cat problems/open-communities.mdx
Thinking about since 2024-11
How do we build and enable open communities?
Creating sustainable, welcoming communities around open source projects that grow beyond their founders.
open-sourcecommunitygovernancesustainability
The Question
How do we build and enable open communities?
Why It Matters
Open source software powers the modern world, but most projects fail not from technical problems but from community problems. Building software is hard; building communities that sustain and improve software over decades is harder. The projects that succeed create something larger than any individual contributor.
Current Thinking
Healthy open communities share characteristics:
- Low barriers to entry - First contributions should be achievable
- Clear governance - Decision-making processes people can understand
- Recognition systems - Contributors feel valued
- Distributed ownership - No single point of failure (or burnout)
The challenge is that these things are easier to describe than to implement.
Open Subquestions
- How do we balance openness with quality control?
- What governance models scale beyond the founding team?
- How do we prevent burnout among core maintainers?
- How do we make communities welcoming without lowering standards?