In Free and Open Source Software communities, collaboration often breaks down not because of code, but because of unclear expectations.
What does “good behaviour” mean in a distributed project? How do we agree on communication norms, decision-making, ownership, or feedback when contributors come from different cultures, time zones, and backgrounds?
Inspired by MANIFEST.in and the spirit of the Agile Manifesto, our team experimented with treating community values like something you “package” explicitly: not left implicit, but made visible, shared, and versioned.
We created a manifesto using virtual whiteboards, voting and a pinch of AI, we aligned perspectives on what truly mattered day-to-day.
The manifesto became more than a guide: it is our north star. It clarified expectations, strengthened cohesion and identity, and helped prevent “that guy” behaviors. It also normalized error culture and generated positive side effects, like virtual coffee, cat photos and manicaretti in chat, making work lighter and more inclusive.
This talk shares the real process of building that manifesto, what worked, what didn’t, and how similar approaches can help open-source projects and distributed communities build stronger, more inclusive and more resilient collaboration cultures.
