If you're in the process of launching an open source project, a little up-front footwork and howework can help things go smoothly, and even keep you out of trouble. Issues pertaining to licensing, distribution, support options and even branding require thinking ahead if you want your project to flourish, and to stay safe. Fortunately, just as free availability is a mantra for open source products, it is for many helpful resources too. In this post, you'll find our updated collection of good, free resources to pay attention to if you're doing an open source project--or if your organization is deploying open source software.

As you’re probably well aware, OSCON is one of the must-attend open source conferences held each year, and last week, the 11th annual OSCON was held in San Jose, California. Although some felt that OSCON didn’t quite make the splash in its new San Jose home that was expected, the decidedly geeky conference put on by tech publisher O’Reilly Media included many sessions and exhibitors of interest. Here are a few notable examples, in a guest column from SourceForge advisory board member Mark R. Hinkle.

One of the highlights of the O'Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON) is finding out who won bragging rights in the annual SourceForge Community Choice Awards. More than 47,000 open source projects were nominated for slots in one of 12 categories, but only 85 were chosen as finalists.

The awards party was held last night at the Agenda Lounge in San Jose, CA. where guests gathered to listen to music, snag swag from ThinkGeek, play retro games, and even line up for free tattoos. While past SourceForge parties were recorded with a handheld camera and later uploaded to an online video hosting service, this year the audio/visual setup had a distinctly professional quality. The entire event was shown live on a dedicated Web site for real-time viewing.