  The success of the VisIt visualization system has been wholly dependent upon
the culture and practices of software development that have fostered its
welcome by users and embrace by developers and researchers. In the following
paper, we, the founding developers and designers of VisIt, summarize some of
the major efforts, both successful and unsuccessful, that we have undertaken in
the last thirteen years to foster community, encourage research, create a
sustainable open-source development model, measure impact, and support
production software. We also provide commentary about the career paths that our
development work has engendered.
