Reviving open-source projects: at the example of OpenTracks
12-28, 16:15–16:45 (Europe/Berlin), HIP - Track 1 - Room 5
Language: English

Most open-source projects have limit lifetime: at some point in time development stops and the project becomes unmaintained. A lot of projects often do not even reach the stage, where they are used by a critical mass of users.

In this talk, I will go through the steps of continuing an open-source project using my lessons learned from forking Google's MyTracks and crafting it into OpenTracks.


What makes an open-source project successful? How does a hands-on lifecycle of an open-source project look like? How can we ensure that an open-source project stays meaningful over several years?

In 2016, Google decided to sun set MyTracks, which was a very successful Android application for GPS tracking. Back in 2019, I forked Google's MyTracks and re-branded as OpenTracks.

In this talk, I will present the hands-on lessons I learned in the subsequent 3 years of ongoing development.

Somebody who can code and stayed long enough at university.