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Open {re}Source

    11Resources

    Books

    Sixteen books on open source, in four groups, each with one line on who it is for. Free means the full text is online at no cost. We checked the links in October 2026.

    Start here if you want to contribute or begin a project#

    • Approachable Open Source by Brian Muenzenmeyer · 2024 · paid – Read this if you want to make a project welcoming to newcomers. It covers practices for maintainers and contributors.
    • Forge Your Future with Open Source by VM (Vicky) Brasseur · 2018 · paid – Read this if you have never contributed. It walks through choosing a project, finding a task and getting a first change merged.
    • The Open Source Way by the Open Source Way contributors · version 2.3 · free – Read this if you are starting or growing a community. It is written as a guidebook, and each section stands on its own.
    • Open Source Projects: Beyond Code by John Mertic · 2023 · paid – Read this if your project has code and users but no governance, hosting or contributor path yet. It covers those topics for open source projects.

    Books on maintaining a project#

    • Producing Open Source Software by Karl Fogel · 2005 · free – Read this if you maintain a project. It covers running one: communication, decision-making, credit and conflict.
    • The Art of Community by Jono Bacon · 2009 · first edition free (CC BY-NC-SA) – Read this if you are the person who has to grow and keep a community. The author, Jono Bacon, worked as a community manager and writes from that experience.
    • Uncurled by Daniel Stenberg · 2022 · free – Read this if you want to see how curl is run. Daniel Stenberg, its lead maintainer, tells the story of the project.
    • Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open-Source Software by Nadia Eghbal · 2020 · paid – Read this if you want to read how the relationship between maintainers and users works on GitHub. The book covers the roles people play in a project and how code is shared.

    Money, business and law#

    • Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure by Nadia Eghbal · 2016 · free report – Read this if you need a source for the funding of open source infrastructure. The Ford Foundation published the report, and it looks at who maintains the code and how they are paid.
    • How Open Source Ate Software by Gordon Haff · 2018, second edition 2021 · paid – Read this if you work at a company that uses open source. It covers business models and governance.
    • Open Source Law, Policy and Practice edited by Amanda Brock · second edition 2022 · free (open access) – Read this if you handle licensing, trademarks or patents. It is a collection of chapters by legal practitioners, published open access.

    History and ideas#

    • The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond · 1999 · free essay – Read this if you want the essay on development in the open that Eric S. Raymond published in 1999. It compares two ways of building software: the cathedral and the bazaar.
    • Free as in Freedom by Sam Williams · 2002 · free (GNU Free Documentation License) – Read this if you want the biography of Richard Stallman. It tells how the free software movement started.
    • Rebel Code by Glyn Moody · 2001 · paid – Read this if you want the history of Linux and the open source movement. It draws on interviews and stops in 2001.
    • Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig · 2004 · free – Read this if you want the copyright background of open licenses. Lawrence Lessig writes about copyright and culture beyond software.
    • Coders by Clive Thompson · 2019 · paid – Read this if you want a book on programmer culture. Open source is one of the topics it covers.