Jethro's Braindump

Attention Allocation in Open Source

How does one appropriately allocate attention to open source projects?

Limiting Attention with a Tiered APproach

Homebrew’s lead maintainer Mike McQuaid limits his available attention by using a tiered approach to managing contributions:

  1. First-time contributors: need documentation, code quality checks etc.
  2. Second-time contributors: provide a more detailed code review
  3. Third-time contributors: warrants individual, focused attention, including providing mentorship, suggesting additional areas of contribution

Redirecting to User Support Systems

Distribute costs by redirecting tasks to users (e.g. forums)

Meeting Demands by Increasing Available Attention

Bring on more active contributors, or find ways to increase the personal attention that can be expended on the project.