Open-Source Projects in LabVIEW

Better Collaboration in Companies Through Inspirations from the Open-Source World

James McNallyJoerg Hampel

● Why use OS sw?○ Independence from vendors○ Flexibility (self-sufficiency/self-sustenance)○ Enforces modularity

● Why contribute to OS sw?○ By contributing back to open source you can be a part of this foundation and push

LabVIEW and engineering further. (And promote you and your companies abilities and approachability)

Why is there Open-Source Software?

Using LabVIEW, we...

● ...facilitate available OS software in our projects (“consume OS”)● ...build OS software to somehow benefit from it (“earn $ from OS”) ● ...collaborate with the rest of the world (“public OS”)● ...collaborate with our company-internal team (“Inner Source[1]”)

[1] coined by Tim O'Reilly in 2000

Open-Source in the Business World

Workflow Walkthrough

“Popularity isn’t everything. Everybody gets into open source for different reasons.”

● Discovery● Usage● Contribution● Profit

When is an OS project successful?

Owner

Maintainer

Contributor

User

Governance and Organisation

● Who sets the vision?● Who decides what goes in

and what stays out?● Who resolves disputes?

Image from Healthy Open Source by Mikeal Rogers

● Vision and Expectations● Processes● Features and Bugs● Documentation● Promotion

➔ Keep it public!➔ Be friendly and responsive!➔ Make it easy!

Communication

A readme as part of the repository

Bugs and issues (and epics and milestones…)

A public place to collect documentation

Synchronous vs Asynchronous

● Open Source Guideshttps://opensource.guide/building-community/

● HSE Public Repositorieshttp://code.hampel-soft.com

● Quick Guide To Contribute (and how to find LabVIEW projects)https://devs.wiresmithtech.com/blog/open-source-labview-how-to-contribute/

● GCentralhttps://www.gcentral.org

References