This is a reference list of company handbooks who are building an open source company culture. This list is inspired by a recent conversation between DROdio (CEO at Armory) and Kate MacAleavey (Head of Culture and Leadership Development at Armory) and Joseph Jacks (founder of OSS Capital) on the topic of "open source culture", in the context of building a Commercial Open Source Software (COSS) company.
We hope this list, which we will maintain going forward, can be a valuable reference material to help COSS founders and operators better build their company culture. While not all of these companies are COSS companies, the way they approach, foster, and articulate culture is forward-thinking and very much "open source".
We encourage you to provide comments, edits, and contribution to this list at the COSS Media GitHub repo.
| Company | Link to Handbook |
|---|---|
| 18F | https://github.com/18F/handbook |
| Armory | http://go.Armory.io/iterate |
| Basecamp | https://github.com/basecamp/handbook |
| Bonusly | https://github.com/bonusly/un-handbook |
| GitLab | https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/ |
| Nylas | https://github.com/nylas/handbook |
| Sourcegraph | https://about.sourcegraph.com/handbook |
| Sparksuite | https://github.com/sparksuite/employee-handbook |
| Tidepool | https://github.com/tidepool-org/handbook |
Oldest comments (3)
This is really helpful, thanks Kevin!
Thanks Jess! Glad it's somewhat useful. Will continue to update it.
I was making a list myself and came across yours! That is fab.
I wondered - is the Buffer "about" section an equivalent to an open company handbook? I didn't think so. I mean it didn't fit the criteria of having company policies, per se.
They do have a lot of transparency (salary, revenue, etc). Yet... it doesn't look like a handbook. So much of what they share about their company is in the blog, which is ephemeral/dated content.
What do you think?