I am encouraged by my progress with my Nostalgia photo annotation application. I am about 3 weeks away from having a strawman version of the software working.

I've also revived another project on my vacation to get a PHP script that lets you traverse classic car models to find the proper keys and locks for restoration purposes.

I thought that I would encapsulate my experiences with these in a whitepaper. I hope to make a step by step, specific cookbook for others to follow. My hope is to inspire a few more people to meet the challenge of software entrepreneurship. It's from the point of view of a first time open source project manager / chief cook and bottle washer.

I. Find the Need or The Pain.
II. Develop a data model.
III. Brainstorm and Documentation
IV. Limit the scope.
V. Gut a Model-View-Controller App
VI. Fill in the Business Objects
VII. To Do List - Take Small Steps
VIII. Google for Reusable Components
IX. Study Other People's Code
X Vision Scenarios - What Will It Be Used For
Appendix - Put together a development environment.