My take is in the quote.

Cary

On Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Donna Campbell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 1. What kind of skill sets (esp. programming) should I be seeking?

The first and foremost skill you'll need is vision along with the
ability to articulate it. Next you need management and organization.
If you have those upfront, the coding will be easy(ish).

> 2. Where would the best place to host an open source project (e.g.,

I prefer GitHub.

> 3. What software/hardware would you recommend that would be a means to a
> quality end-product as well as provide efficiency?

Use AWS or another infrastructure service that won't lock you in. That
way you can change resources as your needs change. Don't buy servers.

Software will depend on your approach. If you can find an existing
project to build on, you can concentrate on building just what you
need. If not, choose a modern programming language appropriate to the
scale of what you are doing. In my opinion, Python and Ruby are at the
top of that list. I suspect that Ruby is a bit most popular in this
venue.

We work mostly in PHP, because most of our work is building on top of
Drupal, A WCMS written in PHP.

> 4. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Pick a license before you start.

I agree with Tom Cramer that the key element of spinning up an open
source project is setting the governance model.

Cary

-- 
Cary Gordon
The Cherry Hill Company
http://chillco.com