Fostering FOSS Communities: A Guide for Newcomers

The Newcomer's Perspective

Free Open Source Software (FOSS) projects heavily rely on the involvement of volunteers from various locations and depend on a consistent influx of fresh contributors to ensure their long-term success and continuity. In order to maintain a sustainable number of developers, it is crucial to inspire, engage, and retain new participants within a project. Studies suggest that newcomers bring valuable innovation by introducing novel ideas and work methods that benefit the entire group (Kraut et al., 2012). However, the reality is that newcomers often encounter numerous difficulties when attempting to make their initial contribution to a project. FOSS project newcomers are typically expected to independently familiarize themselves with the project (Scacchi, 2002), resembling explorers navigating an inhospitable environment, in dire need of guidance (Dagenais et al., 2010). Consequently, a significant challenge for FOSS projects lies in providing adequate support for these newcomers.

The extensive body of scientific literature delves into various aspects of newcomers joining open-source software (OSS) projects. These studies primarily focus on exploring the underlying dynamics that drive individuals to become FOSS contributors, mapping out the pathways to becoming core developers, and identifying indicators of sustained commitment over time (Hars and Ou, 2001; Ye and Kishida, 2003; Jergensen et al., 2011; Schilling et al., 2012; Zhou and Mockus, 2012). However, there remains a relatively unexplored dimension of the FOSS joining process that revolves around the timeframe between a newcomer's decision to participate and the acceptance of their initial code contribution into the shared repository.