Community

User and developer communities ultimately drive the success or failure of an open source project. Developing these communities is a challenging task. The PVPMC has helped to establish a community that supports many of the projects discussed here. A challenge going forward is to grow the community while maintaining or improving its character.

The open source PV modeling community should recognize that professional conduct is critical to attracting potential contributors, encouraging diversity, and increasing the overall impact of a project. The challenge for open source leaders is to create systems that promote positive contributors and prevent negative contributions. The open source PV modeling community is currently small enough that many contributors know each other, and this may help to maintain the professionalism of the community. As PV grows globally, we hope that our open source communities will also grow. Additional efforts, such as implementing a code of conduct for open source projects and meetings [10], may be useful for maintaining a positive, collaborative environment as the community grows.