doh-my-zsh-talk-proposal

doh-my-zsh.txt

Title: 

How I unexpectedly built a monster of an open source project

Excerpt: 

In 2009, Oh My Zsh was released. It's since become a popular open source tool used by developers around the world. Let's walk through how a really small idea turned into a big project.



Description:

Releasing open source projects into the wild is intimidating.

Is my idea original? Is my code good enough? Or even worse…will anybody even use it?

In this session, we’ll walk down memory lane to see how I set out to solve a small annoyance for a handful of coworkers. What was, originally, a seemingly small and simple project has since become a tool that developers across the globe rely on, praise, and detest on a daily basis. 

As we walk through Oh My Zsh’s history, we’ll stop at a few major milestones to speak about how the project’s most popular features came after the initial release. 

* A quick review of the original code base.
* We’ll discuss the biggest changes that have been made. 
* What’s it’s like to realize that it’s time for your project to fork.  
* How we’ve used social media to promote and nurture a community. 
* How to maintain your sanity when you have over 500+ pull-requests waiting pending review.

As the session closes, I’ll share a few thoughts to consider before you start your first (or next) open source project.