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Join the Community

New to the Commons? Start here

STEP 1

Connect With The Community

InnerSource Commons uses Slack for real-time conversations.

All discussions are governed under the Chatham House Rule, which means you are free to use information shared in any channel, but you may not attribute it to a specific person without their permission. This creates a safe space for candid questions and honest conversation.

  • Within Slack, the #general channel is the main space for community conversations, foundation updates, and InnerSource news. Everyone is welcome to post here. You will also find working group channels, special interest groups, and regional channels as you explore.
    Join ISC Slack

  • For conversations the community wants to preserve long-term, we use GitHub Discussions.
    Join GitHub Discussions

  • Subscribe to the InnerSource Commons monthly newsletter for updates on community activities, working groups, and opportunities to get involved. Follow us on social media to keep up with announcements, events, and new resources as they are published.
    Subscribe to Newsletter

STEP 2

Learn What InnerSource Commons Is (and Is Not)

InnerSource Commons is a community of practice, not a software product or a codebase.

It exists to support people and organizations applying open collaboration principles to internal software development.

  • The Foundation provides structure and sustainability for this work. If you are using InnerSource Commons resources, referencing them in your work, or sharing them with others, you are already part of the ecosystem.
    Learn more Read our Governance Charter

STEP 3

Explore InnerSource Commons Resources

The community produces a growing body of shared resources grounded in real-world InnerSource experience across organizations of all sizes and industries.

All resources are freely available and licensed under Creative Commons

These include:

STEP 4

Attend ISC Community Calls

InnerSource Commons hosts regular community calls that are open to everyone and require no prior contribution to attend.

  • Community calls are presentation-led sessions with an interactive Q&A at the end.

  • They are designed to share knowledge, experience, or case studies related to InnerSource and are a good way to understand how InnerSource is practiced across different organizations.

  • We also hold unstructured community calls, co-working–style sessions. They are informal and optional, and there is no set agenda. People join to work quietly alongside others, ask questions, share updates, or simply listen in.
    Find Upcoming Community Calls

STEP 5

Become A Contributor

When you feel comfortable, you may choose to contribute more actively.

The work at InnerSource Commons is largely volunteer-led. No one, including officers and board members, is paid to contribute except for a small number of dedicated Foundation staff.

Contributions can take many forms and do not require formal approval to begin.

They might look like:

  • Sharing feedback on existing resources

  • Amplifying community work by sharing posts or talks

  • Helping others discover InnerSource Commons

  • Contributing to Patterns, Case Studies, or sharing your InnerSource story

Contributing to InnerSource Commons means adding to a body of knowledge that practitioners, researchers, and organizations across the world draw on to do their work differently. If you are uncertain where your experience fits best, that is a reasonable place to be.

The working groups, community calls, and Slack channels are all good ways to get a sense of where the gaps are and where your contribution would have the most impact.

When you are ready, introduce yourself in the #introductions channel on Slack. If you would like a more direct conversation about where to begin, reach out to the Community Manager.

We also want this guide to keep improving. If something here was unclear, missing, or could be explained better, we would love to hear it to help us improve it for the next person.

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