Amazon.sg:Customer reviews: Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software

There are 0 reviews and 0 ratings from Singapore

Dan Ashton

Poetic and funny

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 11 August 2020

"Running a successful open source project is just Good Will Hunting in reverse, where you start out as a respected genius and end up being a janitor who gets into fights." - Byrne Hobart from The Diff on "Working in Public".

The book gives a nuanced overview of the many communities and economics of open source, from the idealistic communities of 30 years ago that we usually think about to the modern GitHub era.

"Working in Public" offers a unique lens into the economics and communities of online creatives, tracking open source's evolution from fringe idealism to becoming a ubiquitous utility - while creating trillions in economic value along the way (relatively little of which went to creators).

As work on a project gets less and less fun over time, the book offers creative solutions for incentive problems, ranging from creator monetization features from Twitch, to patronage, to a peer-sourced community, to not maintaining projects to get your attention back - all part of a buffet of emerging options for an economic model stuck in the past that looks like Esports a la 2011.

The book is also witty and funny (my favorite analogy for maintenance was a neighbor who comes and knocks on your doors with requests for how you should put up your Christmas lights), and has a high bar for craft throughout - everything is impeccably well designed, including the cover texture, page weight, and lie flat binding. The same level of craft and precision went into every detail about what was in and out of scope for the book, necessary given how demanding extractive contributors can be (and surely will be about this book!).

Creators first. This book lives that message, from its physical form to its message. Great book!

21 people found this helpful

amacater

Interesting - clearly written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 28 December 2020

Verified Purchase

This is a really well written study - I was recommended it. clarity of text is not always grand - orange text on bright white paper is not grand.

John W Horton

fun to read w/ lots of clever analogies to help the reader

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 30 October 2020

Verified Purchase

I'm a finance person working w/ some SaaS co.s and I needed some coaching up re: open source, Git versus GitHub etc. A big help! Just one example, pages 56 - 65 explain how to think about a project's user growth rates - versus contributor growth rates - via a matrix of clever analogies (federations vs. clubs vs. toys vs. stadiums). Also I enjoyed learning about some of the individual creators and personalities (some a bit wacky) behind the structure of the industry.

Arthur Rabatin

Extremelyt insightful analysis into open source and highly distributed software development

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 21 September 2020

Verified Purchase

Nadia provides a deep and informative analysis on how open source projects develop, and she provides a helpful connection to the origins of open source software.

Her analysis is relevant for any commercial user of open source software, economists interested in the contribution of open source in the economy, and anyone managing highly distributed teams.

Required reading for any lead in my team.

One person found this helpful

Eric Berry

This book is the "Bible of Open Source"

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 25 September 2020

Verified Purchase

If you want to know about the current state of open source sustainability, look no further than this book. Nadia Eghbal has been involved in the open source community for many many years and has collected tons of knowledge and "programmer archaeology" into this book. I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

h

An amazing book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 20 January 2021

Verified Purchase

I've worked in open source for ~ten years and it's really great to see the experiences from different projects and communities distilled and reading this caused a lot of self reflection on how I work on open source software.

Aus

Must read for anyone in open source in 2020

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 4 October 2020

Verified Purchase

Very relevant for modern day open source which is really different to open source at the start of the software revolution. The production of the book is also amazing and the book is as much of a joy to hold and read as is the content.

orta therox

An interesting look at the future of the open source ecosystem

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 28 August 2020

Verified Purchase

As a pretty high level contributor to open source as a whole, I felt like Nadia did a great job of explaining what the mainstream OSS looks like today and I enjoyed her exploration into what that could mean for the future..

( Beautiful book too )

One person found this helpful

Reader

Not bad but could be much better

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 18 May 2021

Verified Purchase

The book has it's moments and sometimes good insights, but the author writes too much about social media in general, than about open source projects. The last chapter is very disappointing,

2 people found this helpful

Paul DeVito

Fun read to a degree, but didn’t come out of it with anything actionable

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 24 September 2020

Verified Purchase

Quick read, but can’t say I got anything actionable out of it to help make me a better programmer or OSS maintainer, contributor, and user. Maybe I went into it with the wrong expectations, but wouldn’t necessarily recommend.

12 people found this helpful

5 star		78%
4 star		13%
3 star		4%
2 star		4%
1 star		1%

Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services	Amazon Fresh Groceries & More Right To Your Door	Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations

Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectables	Alexa Actionable Analytics for the Web

Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	DPReview Digital Photography

Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software

›

Customer reviews

Customer reviews

Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From Singapore

From other countries

Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software › Customer reviews

Customer reviews

Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From Singapore

From other countries

Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software

›

Customer reviews