Practical Guide to the Open Source Development Model (LF271) - Course Outline

Module 1: The Open Source Development Model

This module is an introduction to the open source development model that presumes no prior experience with open communities. It discusses the characteristics of the FOSS development model and how it differs from traditional proprietary development, and how to work with upstream projects following this development model.

Module 2: Applying Open Source Processes in Corporate Development

This module discusses several open source processes and development practices that can be adopted by companies internally to enable faster and more efficient development cycles, with better collaboration especially across multiple locations or geographies.

Module 3: Open Source Best Practices

This module focuses open source development best practices that developers in your organization should follow to ensure successful and fruitful participation in any open source project. It builds on module 1 and provides a pragmatic view of how other companies successfully participate in open development, with extensive best practices and examples drawn from the Linux kernel development project.

Module 4: Guide to Open Sourcing Proprietary Technology

This module discusses best practices to follow when creating a new open source project, and highlights a number of pitfalls to avoid. It introduces a method for evaluating whether starting a new open source project is the right choice, what infrastructure you should have in place before launching, how to prepare your company, how to build a developer community and more. The module includes pragmatic examples drawn from an extensive heritage of launching open source projects.

Module 5: Linux Kernel Source Code Style Guide

This module is a quick introduction to the Linux Kernel style guide, and discusses should and should not do to increase the likelihood of your patch getting accepted.

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