most people understand the open source software is a software copied for free what is less understood is how the potential chaos of all these copies can be transformed into collaborative whole lets break down how open source works using a family cooking recipe as a metaphor we can all relate to just like code all recipes start by somebody writing the original version in this case grandma Mae has developed a delicious cookie recipe she shares it with her family telling him they can use her recipe as long as they follow her rules in grandma meas case anyone who bakes cookies with her recipe has to credit her as the author and if they make changes to her recipe she has to be allowed to use those changes in future versions of the recipe the same thing happens when someone writes and publishes an original version of open source software the put rules called licenses in place so that others can use and change the code they have written as long as they follow the authors license grand mamas recipe provides her family with a place to start that they can customize to their own liking aunt maria decided to add chocolate chips to her batch of cookies in software this departure from the original code is called a branch aunt maria change was such a great success with everyone who tasted the cookies that she asked grandma made to add chocolate chips to her original recipe at this point grandma Mae needs to begin acting as a maintainer looking after the integrity of the original recipe and deciding which changes she will incorporate in this case grandma Mae agreed that the chocolate chips were a good condition and so from then on grandma recipe include chocolate chips aunt maria is now a contributor because she has contributed something to the recipe in open source software development this process of incorporating a change or patch into the original code is called upstream me because its flowing back to the original source if the original brand of chocolate chips becomes unavailable grandma Mae is responsible for updating the upstream chocolate ship patch with new brand because she accepted the patch the benefits of incorporating your changes into the original recipe are pretty amazing to the popular open source motto upstream early and often the sooner you upstream the sooner the community can back you up not only by maintaining the recipe but also by testing it in as many configurations as there are many community members using it uncles miles went out on a limb and added peanut butter and nuts to his batch of cookies his wife and friends all love peanut butter so they thought his additions greatly improved the original recipe but when uncle Myles tried to upstream his nutty changes grandma Mae who did tests peanut butter refused to add peanut butter and nuts to his recipe uncle Myles resolved to-------1st part