Since 2001 or so (according to SourceForge) when I got involved in Open Source, I've joined a handful of projects and had roles varying from a general advisor/reviewer to Core Developer to Newbie Wrangler. Yes, that last one was an actual title. But the interesting thing is that I've never started an Open Source Project myself. I've worked with projects that were established, already had communities (some quite small), and already had some structure in place. Recently, a number of opportunities have come to light and one of the interesting ones - but not the most interesting one - involves preparing a small application for release as Open Source... so I find myself considering and evaluating what it would take.

First, I'm a firm believer in that it must be useful now. As great as SourceForge is, I'm not willing to add yet another project that has a grand vision that doesn't do anything. That said, it doesn't need to be perfect. I don't think the application needs to do everything and fully encompass the entire vision in the first release... but it needs to do something useful immediately.