**Username or display name (will be displayed publicly):** @Jhernandez
**Categories/Tags/Keywords (up to 5):** Maintenance, Open Source
**Session type (select one):**
//TBD, either Presentation, or Presentation + Discussion//
- [x] Presentation (15m) + Discussion (40m) (including Q/A) - 55 mins
**Venue (select one):**
[x] I would like to be on the main track
**When are you available to have the session? **
* 18 UTC Friday is when it has been scheduled.
### Session Details
**Short description of the session (~150 words):**
As one of the hackathon themes, we will discuss why it is important to have co-maintainers for your tools, what can happen when you don't have them, and share examples and stories of co-maintained tools.
There will be a short intro, and we will follow with an open discussion with some prompts where we will take notes.
**Target audience:**
People building and operating open source tools for users.
**What will participants get out of this session? (~50 words)**
An overview of why and how you should have co-maintainers for your code. A discussion about co-maintaining software and how to find maintainers for your projects.
**(Optional) Additional resources:**
//Share any documentation or links where participants can learn more about the session topics//
---
#### Session organizer notes and references
Here are some prompts that have come up talking about this topic:
* Why have co-maintainers
** The wiki way of programming
** Help with code maintenance (bug fixes, feature development)
** Help with docs maintenance (keeping docs up to date, proofreading)
** Help with testing the software
** Help with bug/task triage and support
** Longevity and health of the software
* How to look for co-maintainers?
* How to make it easy for co-maintainers to help?
* Why is it difficult to have/find co-maintainers?
Here are interesting links and references:
* [[ https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:BryanDavis/Developing_community_norms_for_critical_bots_and_tools | Developing_community_norms_for_critical_bots_and_tools ]]: From a previous talk by @bd808
* [[ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stealing_some_of_Wikimedia%27s_Principles_to_Democratize_Programming.webm | File:Stealing some of Wikimedia's Principles to Democratize Programming ]] talks about applying the wiki principles to programming