An old publication more relevant now than ever - The Cathedral and the Bazaar. A comparison of software practices in the early 2000s with some retrospective to how great software is built.
I think much of the writing can be applied to today's federated content models.
In particular:
- The Mail Must Get Through
- Necessary Preconditions for the Bazaar Style
- The Importance of Having Users
It's more true than ever! Not really just about kernel development, bit just development in general (see node/npm, etc) and the fact that you need someone to own quality as it doesn't happen by itself.