Navigators and Explorers: A Leadership Model for Open Source Teams

Setting direction, organizing resources, charting a course through (or avoiding) moments of crises and attracting new and retaining existing participants and are all ways that effective leadership can help increase the stability and quality of your open source project. However, many of our teams still lack visible, effective leadership, putting these projects at risk of not achieving what their participants hope to.

There are many leadership models that have been devised and documented over time. Choosing a model that works for a given community and context is critical to leadership that produces the desired results. Navigators and Explorers is a model that does not rely on top-down dictation or charismatic leaders but which instead emphasizes organizing and drawing out the creativity in your teammates through light-weight processes built around consensus building, mapping and community support systems.

Absolutely anyone can learn to employ the principles of this model with a few key principles in hand. This presentation will describe these principles and give concrete examples of how to practice and employ them in your own project. If you feel your open source project(s) could benefit from improved leadership and/or you wish to develop your own leadership skills, this presentation may help you realize those goals.

Presentation text...slides below.