Since the goal of the Open Source Collective is to support a Free and Open Source ecosystem, your project license is critically important. The list of Open Source Initiative Approved License List can serve as a gauge for valid open license criteria to the collective. Other valid licensing guidelines include the following:
- Free Software Foundation License List;
- Debian Free Software Guidelines;
- Fedora Software License List;
- Open Source Hardware Association Statement of Principles.
We can accept any open source project, in any language, anywhere in the world. We can also accept open source related meetup groups and conferences, as well as advocacy, research, and awareness initiatives.
If you are an open source project with at least 100 stars on GitHub and at least two contributors, you will likely be immediately approved.
If you don’t fit 100 GitHub stars requirement, we will consider your application on a case by case basis, using the following criteria:
Projects who don’t have their code repo on GitHub should show equivalent traction to the 100 stars requirement, whether through GitLab stars, evidence that the project is a dependency of other open source projects, or similar social validation.
User groups should have at least 50 members and be able to demonstrate a genuine history of community activity (forum, events, publications, etc).
Your project must be directly related to open source, not proprietary technology or any other topics.
If there’s a codebase at the heart of your project, it should be under an open source license. (See above.)
Meetups or small event groups should have organized at least 2 events previously, and be able to show a history of activity online and offline. As further evidence, you agree to send photo/video documentation of your first event after joining Open Source Collective.
Conferences and larger events may require specific risk assessment by our board. No expenses will be paid in advance of sufficient funds being available in the Collective budget (e.g. hiring a venue).
You understand that all agreements between your Collective and third parties, such as venues, contractors, speakers, etc, require explicit written permission and involvement of the OSC administrators. As fiscal sponsor, such agreements are legally between the third party and Open Source Collective.