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How To Spread Word About My FOSS Project?
An anonymous reader writes "I'm in a bit of a bind with an open source web software project of mine. It's a very small project that I've been developing for over three years. By now it's got a promising feature set, but very few users and virtually no community around it. The problem is that people I have asked to try it refuse to do so because it doesn't have a thriving community. It's an infinite loop: without users, we won't have a community, and without a community, users aren't coming. So, Slashdot, my question is: how can I build a community and help get the word out about a project led by 2 people and with only 5-6 regulars on our forum and IRC?"
1. Developers are king. If you could attract one more developer, your project would stand a much higher chance of success.
2. Just because you open-sourced your project doesn't mean it's useful to anyone. No matter how much we geeks don't like marketing, you have to think hard about your users: where are they, what do they care about and what do they really need?
It's normal for all new projects to languish for a while. If you think twitter was an instant success, remember that it had 2 years of null traffic before taking off. Go out and ask users what they want. Think. Then implement. Your #1 potential mistake today: feature creep. Don't think that if only you added this one more feature, the crowds would come. If anything, try to simplify things :-) and start communicating (posting on slashdot is not ideal, you should post wherever your users are, not talk to developers).
If there were any info. on what the project is and where to check it out. (I realize a lot of people would have made snarky comments if that info had been included too. A regular catch 22 -- but this is a great opportunity and you should post a description and link to the project in this thread.)
Without any specifics I would think most answers are going to be just as generic. Post about it in different message boards, post about it at aggregator type sites (reddit, digg) - use twitter, facebook or whatever else might help people find out about it.
Who are the intended users? Where would those people be that you might show up and promote your project? Are their user groups that might be a good place to frequent?
Would a publication/site that deals with FOSS or whatever problem your project solves be interested in doing a write-up? Will they accept one from someone on the project or one of the users?
If it runs on Linux is it available through the package management systems of the major distros?
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
some of us might be interested in it. You've just missed your best PR opportunity yet!
Try posting to freshmeat?
http://freshmeat.net/about
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
And some product, no matter how great they are at what they do will never appeal to a large crowd because of the focus. For instance, anyone maintaining a FOSS project targetting left-handed fim-bozzles will only ever appeal to people interested in left-handed fim-bozzles not matter how good of a product your FOSS iLHFB app is. Making friends will help it grow, but making friends with left-handed fim-bozzle enthusiasts will help your project grow even more.
1) Post a message to slashdot
2) ????
3) Profit
Except in this rare case the mystery step 2 is easy to identify:
1) Post a message to slashdot
2) Include a link to your project
3) Profit!
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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You have a crew of nerds here who are all about open source and you refer to your project as "an open source web software project of mine" and are asking for more users?!
You must be new here.
It's kinda sad that you didn't put it in the summary, as others pointed out before me, you really did miss out. Good luck getting it in in the comments, everybody who skims the summaries won't even see it...
If he -had- posted it in the article, 70% of the comments would berate him for slashvertisement. So it's a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
I like how when there is a slashvertisement, everyone bitches.
This guy sidesteps, and everyone is complaining because there isn't a slashvertisement. Oh the irony.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
Last time I got "friendlier" with one of my users I got into a law suit.
As everyone knows, Open Source software is the wave of the future. With the market share of GNU/Linux and *BSD increasing every day, interest in Open Source Software is at an all time high.
Developing software within the Open Source model benefits everyone. People can take your code, improve it and then release it back to the community. This cycle continues and leads to the creation of far more stable software than the 'Closed Source' shops can ever hope to create.
So you're itching to create that Doom 3 killer but don't know where to start? Read on!
The most important thing that any Open Source project needs is a Sourceforge page. There are tens of thousands of successful Open Source projects on Sourceforge.Net; the support you receive here will be invaluable.
OK, so you've registered your Sourceforge.Net project and set the status to '0: Pre-Thinking About It', what's next?
Now you need to set up your SourceForge.net homepage. Keep it plain and simple - don't use too many HTML tags, just knock something up in VI. Website editors like Expression Web and DreamWeaver just create bloated eye-candy - you need to get your message to the masses!
Since you probably can't program at all you'll need to try and find some people who think they can. If your project is a game you'll probably need an artist too. Ask for help on your new Sourceforge pages. Here is an example to get you started:
Thousands of talented programmers and artists hang out at Sourceforge.net ready to devote their time to projects so you should get a team together in no time!
So now you have your team together you are ready to change your projects status to '1: Pre-Bickering'. You will need to discuss your ideas with your team mates and see what value they can add to the project. You could use an Instant Messaging program like MSN for this, but since you run Linux you'll have to stick to e-mail.
Don't forget that YOU are in charge! If your team doesn't like the idea of giant robotic spiders just delete them from the project and move on. Someone else can fill their place and this is the beauty of Open Source development. The code might end up a bit messy and the graphics inconsistant - but it's still 'Free as in Speech'!
Now that you've found a team of right thinking people you're ready to start development. Be prepared for some delays though. Programming is a craft and can take years to learn. Your programmer may be a bit rusty but will probably be writing "hello world" programs after school in no time.
Closed Source games like Doom 3 use the graphics card to do all the hard stuff anyhow, so your programmer will just have to get the NVidia 'API' and it will be plain sailing! Giant robot spiders, here we come!
So it's been a few years, you still have no files released or in CVS. Your programmer can't get enough time on the PC because his mother won't let him use it after 8pm. Your artist has run off with a Thai She-Male. Your project is still at '1: Pre-Bickering'...
Congratulations! You now have a successful Open Source project on Sourceforge.net! Pat yourself on the back, think up another idea and do it all again! See how simple it is?
I've been involved with a project which fitted this description almost perfectly: FOSS webapp which was dependent on a community it never really had. I almost thought the question could be about it, until I visited its page to find that it's being closed down. It may sound obvious, but I think what really did for that project was that it didn't do anything people could already do. Specifically, a large part of its functionality was replicating things that Facebook did, and maybe 99% of its target users were on Facebook. Without a compelling reason to use it, it never really took off, and the developers weren't enthused enough to create the grand new features that had been planned.
Getting critical mass in the first place is hard. I wonder if there's any stories out there about how Facebook/Myspace/Twitter first got started. As others have said, you'll need to sell it to your friends first, then work at keeping them happy until they're happy to recommend it to their friends. Perhaps focus at first on the non-social aspects of the site, that don't depend on community, then be ready to shift to a more social model once you've got a couple of dozen users. An empty forum is just depressing, but some old-fashioned content is useful even for the very first visitor.
Oh, and since everyone's busy berating you for not giving the name: well done on not Slashvertising! Although I admit I'm also curious about it.
Or imprisoned for murdering your wife.
The fact the product is Open Source or free will not get any thing out...
Lets figure out some things...
The 5C's
Customer or for your case you end users what is you app targeted for Corporate users or end users.
Company or your OSS group that has developed the software what are your values why do you want the product to grow what makes your group better then most
Context what itch are you trying to scratch. Does it solve a problem
Collaborators who do you need to work with to make your program run. Is it linux only or does it work on windows... Do you need 3rd party tools to run it. Do you have any people who are willing to push your product.
Competitors Sure you may have some cool new features but are they better then what the other Open Source tools have... Are there closed source application that do the same thing you do. If so how do you defend against any advantages.
Next is the STP
Segmentation What is the product the best fit for.
Targeting Really push to the people the product is the best fit for. If they prefer a closed source solution or a big name you will be wasting your time. However there are other people who want you app in the open source form.
Positioning make sure you make your product to really show off what it needs to do for your targeted group of people
The 4P
Product what is your product what does it do
Price Sure it is open source and it is free are you going to offer consulting or support services if so how much are you going to charge.
Place What will be your range you want the product to first go out
Promotions Well if you are going to do consulting for your product you might as well add some Linux support too.
These is Marketing 101 in a nutshell.
Basic marketing isn't trying to trick people into getting your product but finding where people would like your product.
Sure your product may not have a big following that is ok there are a lot of small software companies to make software to a lot of big players. I myself when I worked as a consultant myself made software for many large companies that was custom for them even if there was Open Source alternatives I created code and documentation for them so the code is theirs and with No strings attached.
For Open Source tools the trick is to make sure that you are willing to back it up and if fail it is possible for others to pick it up.
Open Source Projects do die sometimes so do closed source product. However there are people making closed source products and selling them. The fact that it is open source and has a small comunity isn't an excuse. You just need to market the product
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
*Now* we know why no one's using your open source project -- because it's Yet Another CMS!
If you're trying to drive a new project in a space that already has a clear incumbent, you're in for a tough climb.
If you're trying to drive a new project in a space that already has several clear incumbents, you're in for a *really* tough climb.
If you're trying to drive a new project in a space that already has several clear incumbents and hundreds of failures, you're in for... ...well, you see where I'm going here.
I'm sure your CMS is different. It's sensitive and nurturing and really cares about me in a way that those other CMSes don't, and would never throw me out of the car for getting drunk at Andy's party that night. I get it. But when you're competing against the Star Quarterback of CMS projects, you *must* define what is unique about your project, and you must *market* that uniqueness. And you'd better be right, too -- because otherwise, you can forget about getting a date to the CMS prom.