It’s now been a little more than two months since I took my Malmöfestivalen for Android 2010 project and turned it into a Open Source project for 2011 development. Since then, the project has grown from a closed source one man show to an Open Source project now backed by 15+ people, who are giving some of their free time to add features, fix bugs or refactor code. Quite an unexpected and mindblowing development!

Given my trade as a Software Development Consultant, the projects I’ve been working on have traditionally been (very) closed source. So I didn’t have much experience in preparing, publishing and running an Open Source project. I did have the conviction of doing it, but I needed some input how to it in practice. This lack of experience, by the way, is also why I take a little extra time and write about this. Open Source is not new, I use many Open Source frameworks in my job, but actually going from closed source to open source is quite an experience.

If some of you are considering to take existing projects to Open Source (or starting one), but need insight about the practical details and also the more philosophical aspects of Open Source, I can recommend these books:

 
This book is a practical guide on how to run Open Source projects. It will tell you about how to handle basically every situation you may encounter, from announcing your project to handling code and lead team members. 

 
A collection of essays about Open Source from different authors.

 
A collection of essays / stories. The book is more than 10 years old, but still very inspirational.

The Malmöfestivalen for Andoid and iPhone continues its development throughout the summer until the festival starts in mid-August. Many questions are still open: Will people like the new features in the Android app? How will the new iPhone app look and feel? Will we gather enough Windows Phone 7 developers so that having an app ready in two months is believeable?

I’ll keep you posted – enjoy the reading! :)

It’s with great pleasure and excitement that I can announce the Malmö festival Android 2011 app an Open Source project!

Last years edition was fuelled by my curiosity about the Android platform and functioned as a way to scratch my personal itch on how to navigate the festival better. A lot has happened since last year. I’ve gotten a lot of feedback and ideas from users, other developers and friends, and I’ve also gotten encouragement by the people behind the festival. Furthermore, I’ve also had the pleasure to work directly with talented people that create Android applications for a living (I usually work in the enterprise development domain). Combined with the huge adoption of Android phones during the last year, this convinced me to try to take the application to a whole new level of awesomeness this year.

I have given this a lot of thought during the last couple of months and I think that moving the project into the Open Source space (under the GNU GPL license) will benefit everyone in the best possible way. I considered taking a shot at it myself (alone again), but the idea of collaborating with other creative people from the Malmö area (and maybe even beyond) is a lot more compelling. Not only will make the work more fun, but the result will potentially contain many more awesome features, than I would have time to create alone. And more awesome features means more happy users! :)

The strategy right now is to get more users to the Facebook page, which will serve as the interface between users and project members where ideas can be exchanged. I’ve also created a non-technical project front page where the users can get the application and / or get involved in the project.

And, of course, there’s the project space itself, where project members can find code, discussions and issue tracker. The project space is in English, by the way, following the festivals multicultural spirit. And, most important, some people have already signed up to help! Whoop whoop!

So, there you go… it’s now Open Source. Let’s get hacking! :)