This is a presentation held at eLiberatica 2008. http://www.eliberatica.ro/2008/ One of the biggest events of its kind in Eastern Europe, eLiberatica brings community leaders from around the world to discuss about the hottest topics in FLOSS movement, demonstrating the advantages of adopting, using and developing Open Source and Free Software solutions. The eLiberatica organizational committee together with our speakers and guests, have graciously allowed media representatives and all attendees to photograph, videotape and otherwise record their sessions, on the condition that the photos, videos and recordings are licensed under the Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 License.

1. Introducing Open Komodo
Shane Caraveo
Chief Dragon Wrangler, ActiveState
shanec@activestate.com
slides: blogs.activestate.com/shanec
eLiberatica 2008, Bucharest, Romania, May, 2008

2. You did WHAT?!?

3. You did WHAT?!?
 Take a proprietary product called Komodo Edit

4. You did WHAT?!?
 Take a proprietary product called Komodo Edit
 Make it open source and free

5. You did WHAT?!?
 Take a proprietary product called Komodo Edit
 Make it open source and free
 Maintain revenue from the product

6. Quick Agenda

7. Quick Agenda
 Why did we go open source?

8. Quick Agenda
 Why did we go open source?
 What challenges did we encounter?

9. Quick Agenda
 Why did we go open source?
 What challenges did we encounter?
 What did we learn in the process?

10. Quick Agenda
 Why did we go open source?
 What challenges did we encounter?
 What did we learn in the process?
 What did we change?

11. Quick Agenda
 Why did we go open source?
 What challenges did we encounter?
 What did we learn in the process?
 What did we change?
 First a small history lesson...

12. ActiveState History
 10 year old commercial open source
company
 Strong open source history, many
contributions
 Focus on open source, open standards
 Customer and employee focus
 Most of the Fortune 1000 companies use
our software
 Free products, millions of users

13. Komodo History
 Award winning development tool
focused on dynamic languages
 7 year old commercial product
 Based on Mozilla code
 Free Edition released Feb. 2007
 Edit Open Sourced Oct. 2007
 Our oldest feature request (2001)
implemented early 2008
Circa 2000

14. Our impetus for change
 Users love Komodo
 High value functionality
 Unique technology stack
 Large investment
 Highly fractured market
 Low financial performance
 Small user base
 We feel it has big potential

15. Our Hopes and Dreams
 Re-position product
 Exposure and access to new markets
 Build a large community of users
 Gain open source contributions
 Contribute something wonderful
 Increase our commercial sales

16. Our Fears
 Would a free version destroy sales?
 Building a community from scratch
 If we build it would they come?
?

17. Komodo Download Trends
4.0 OS Announce 4.3
Free Edit OS Available
2006 2007 2008
500K Downloads

18. Komodo Daily Usage Trends
OS Announce OS Available 4.3
4.0 4.1 4.2

19. Results!
 More downloads today than ever
 Very positive response from users
 IDE sales did not collapse (!)
 Community is growing
 Contributions are starting to appear
We have much more to do!

20. Lessons Learned
 Clarity of purpose
 Don’t bite off more than you can chew
 Be Open! with plans, opinions, reasons for actions
 Listen to your supporters
 Live big, have a vision
and a dream
 Share you vision with
your users

21. How did we change?
 More focused on our business objectives
 Fears and concerns transformed into opportunities
 Our development and planning is more open, shared
with users and customers early
 Internal business rules are
being redefined
 Product management focused
on complementary business
models

22. Open source as a strategy
 Primary business focus on services rather than product
 Value add functionality in commercial product
 Provide quality, useful software
 Leverage open source communities to provide software
 Give as much as you receive
 Examine alternative business
models

23. Open source as a philosophy
 Open source software promotes
creativity and innovation
 Open source introduced new
market possibilities
 Without open standards, our
market will evaporate
 Economy of scale in software
development
 We must support, contribute and
protect free software
 We are still a commercial
company

24. Do It Yourself
 Is it right for you?
 Consider other alternatives
 Differentiate, don’t cripple
 “open” is about more than
source code
 Embrace your users and
customers, they will gladly
help you
 Ask for help, seek out
experts and mavens
 Follow your mission and
values

25. What’s Next?
This story is half baked!
 Lots of new users
 New business plans are
possible
 Invite me next year and get
Part 2 of the story!

26. Thank you!
Find out more about Komodo at:
www.activestate.com/Komodo
www.openkomodo.com
community.activestate.com
Shane Caraveo
Chief Dragon Wrangler, ActiveState
shanec@activestate.com
slides: blogs.activestate.com/shanec
eLiberatica 2008, Bucharest, Romania, May, 2008