Patterns for tearing down contribution barriers to FLOSS projects

Abstract

The success of a “Free, Libre and Open Source Software” (FLOSS) project depends on its ability to attract new developers. However, before prospective developers can contribute their first patch, they have to overcome the contribution barriers of the FLOSS project. This paper presents two patterns. Each pattern identifies a possible problem in the contribution processes of FLOSS projects and shows a practice to alleviate this problem. The first pattern helps prospective developers compile the FLOSS project's source code and build an executable application. The second pattern encourages prospective developers to submit their modifications back to the FLOSS project and at the same time fosters integration of these modifications into the main development branch of the FLOSS project.