Following is a sidebar from an interview Niels Hartvig did with
Prosabladet in the 4 April, 2009 edition.
(http://www.prosa.dk/) I used
Google Translate to get the bulk of the translation as the original
work is Danish-only, but added some content where the translation
was ambiguous.
::::
1 - You are never more than in the start-up phase. Learn the
basics of place in the beginning. Write documentation - the devil!
I never finished it. Umbraco would be twice as prevalent if there
had been proper focus on evidence.
2 - Be 100 percent open about everything in the project. It's no
disgrace not to make money in the beginning of the project. If you
are honest about it, you'll go to the the users and they'll give
you that.
3 - Be clear why you want to build a open-source project. The
good reasons are to be more capable and to get more input and to
create software jointly with others.
4 - Sit down and carefully review the license options. Do
not just take GPL because all others do.
5 - If it is a commercial project then get a trademark. It is
the only asset you have. You need this to obtain a share of the
profits from training companies, etc., which wish to use the
trademark. If you don't, people will stand and laugh at you.
5 1/2 - Have a natural user environment. Low team meetings and
conferences - it is easy. Write it on your blog.