Enhancing Open Source Collaboration in @carbon/ibm-products

[saogregl]

Hi, I’m Lucas! I’m a hobby developer who’s been using @carbon/react and @carbon/ibm-products for a while, mainly to build internal tools at my job as a mechanical engineer. Although this isn’t part of my formal role, I love working with the Carbon Design System and use it for most of my projects. I’m not an expert in UI/UX, but I’d love to contribute by tackling issues and learning more about the process. Huge thanks to IBM for open-sourcing such an amazing design system!

Proposal: Enhancing Open Source Collaboration in @carbon/ibm-products

Context

The @carbon-design-system/ibm-products repository is, in my opinion, a very important resource for users, while the @carbon-design-system/carbon monorepo provides essential primitives, this repository effectively implements patterns widely used in real-world applications. While publicly available, much of the reasoning, design explorations, and resources remain within IBM’s internal platforms. This includes:

• A product gallery showcasing real-world use of the design system.
• Design exploration documents explaining the rationale behind decisions.

These resources are incredibly valuable but currently unavailable to the wider open-source community. While understandable, this makes it harder for external contributors to:

1. Understand the design system’s goals and roadmap.
2. Gain inspiration from existing implementations.
3. Actively contribute to its evolution.

This can limit adoption and innovation within the open-source community.

I've created this discussion (and I hope this is the right place for this) to suggest a few things:

1. Publicly Share Select Resources:

   • A public version of the product gallery to inspire the community.
   • Sanitized design exploration documents focusing on the “why” behind decisions.

2. Facilitate Collaboration:

   • Open forums or discussions to gather community feedback.
   • A partially open roadmap to guide contributors on upcoming work.

I understand that some resources need to remain internal, but curated materials and increased collaboration could significantly benefit both IBM and the community.

Thanks you all very much!