The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) held a workshop in October 2022 to discuss and engage with contributors to open-source software (OSS) on DOE-funded projects. Many DOE awardees and representatives shared their experiences and provided insights into best practices for building and sustaining an engaged community around OSS projects.
A common theme across presentations was the importance of engaging and recognizing contributors to OSS projects in order to establish a lasting community around them. The participants had suggestions for successful recruitment from solar-adjacent and non-solar fields, such as running open starter programs, hackathons, and short seminars focused on solar OSS. Suggestions for better support of OSS projects included the creation of requirements for new projects, supporting a common ontology across solar-related models, and ongoing maintenance for existing software.
Finally, OSS governance was a significant topic of discussion, covering issues such as the selection of licenses, attribution of copyright, and handling of trademarks and forks. This is an area where the community, with DOE support, can establish and document best practices drawing from the experience that has accrued to the national labs from their engagement in OSS projects, solar-related or not.
For additional details and deeper insights, we recommend going through the linked presentations.