The ASCOM Initiative is a group of developers and astronomical instrument makers that work together to bring plug-and play compatibility between astronomy software and astronomical instruments. ASCOM stands for the Astronomy Common Object Model.
Virtually all of the discussions between developers takes place on the ASCOM-Talk Forum. In addition, astronomy software users with questions and problems concerning drivers often use this forum for assistance. To the degree possible the regulars try to help.
In addition, we have a Facebook page for ASCOM, which as of Fall 2011 has over 500 members.
All development of the ASCOM Platform, and some of the driver developments, are being done in an open source community environment.
Sources for all Platform components and some drivers reside on a Subversion server. Developers use the Tortoise SVN client for Windows Explorer as well as the Visual SVN subversion add-in for Microsoft Visual Studio, giving them communal access to sources, and the ability to make changes and additions while having their work automatically merged with that of others. Weekly automated builds of the Platform are done by a dedicated TeamCity Build Management Server. Finally, we make heavy use of an issue tracking system based on the Jira Bug and Issue Tracker.
Go to the ASCOM-Talk forum on Yahoo! Groups. You will need a Yahoo! account to post messages there, but you can read messages anonymously