How does open source software happen? What can we learn from it for cross-organizational collaboration? In this presentation, ifPeople cofounders Tirza Hollenhorst and Christopher Johnson talk about what open source is, the process by which it is created through a voluntary community, and a concrete process that can be used in any project (even non-software projects) to "social source" the project.

1. An Open Source Approach
to Collaboration
Chris Johnson Tirza Hollenhorst
cjj@ifpeople.net tirzalyn@ifpeople.net
678 608 3408 678 608 3408
wwww.ifpeople.net www.ifpeople.net

2. About Us
● Scientists by training
● Lived in 7 countries
● Cofounded ifPeople (2003, Argentina)
● Social Enterprise
● Partnership-Based
● Strategy-Centered

4. We help our clients use tech
to nurture effective, long-term
relationships with stakeholders.
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5. The Challenge
Problems larger than
one org can solve
● Need to use resource
efficiently
● Lack of culture of
collaboration
● Duplication of effort
Photo by foxypar4

6. Open Source Helps
Distribute the burden
Diverse perspectives
enrich the final product
Focus on creating value
for users
Give everyone a voice
Photo by km6xo

7. How?
● Give people the rights
● Focus on the community
● Appropriate leadership
Quality product will emerge!

8. What is
Open Source?

9. Open Source is NOT
● Free beer (freeware)
● Twitter (free services)
● Anyone can change anything (and break)
software
● Experimental projects by underground hackers
● Used only by geeks

10. Open Source is...
License Product Means of Production
Img: Vector Portal

11. License
● Governs the rights to the product created
● You have the right to:
● Modify
● Copy
● Use in any way
● Distribute
==> need to have the source
“Free as in Freedom”

12. Understanding Open Source Community

13. Shared Purpose
“The reason that the Fedora
community exists is to
encourage and empower the
awesomeness that exists in the
world, to bring people together,
and to share the awesome
results with everyone.”
Source: “Cultivating Contribution”, Tom Calloway, 2009

14. Processes
● How to organize people and innovation for a
hard problem: creating software.
● Design
● Development
● Release management
● Quality control
● Maintenance
● Marketing

15. Open Source Community Members
Contributors (5%))
Participants (15%))
PARTICIPATE
Consumers (80%) SHARE
SEEK
Source: “Cultivating Contribution”, Tom Calloway, 2009

16. Structure
● Governing body (foundation, company, etc)
– Handles contributor agreements and access to code
● Built around modularity of the code base
– People or teams take responsibility for a module
● Often times informal structure

17. Technology
● Code repository ● Communications:
● Issue tracker ● Mailing list
● Instant messaging
● Website and/or wiki

18.
Graphic by @ambrin based on work by Christopher Johnson and Jon Stahl

19. Community Case Studies
● Mozilla Foundation / Firefox
● Apache Software Foundation / Apache Server

20. Shared Purpose: The Mozilla project is a global
community of people who believe that openness,
innovation, and opportunity are key to the continued health
of the Internet.
Product: Firefox web browser with ~23% market share.
Other projects include Thunderbird (email application) and
Bugzilla (software development tool).

21. Origin: AOL acquired Netscape; Netscape announced
in 1998 that Communicator product would be available as
free, open source software.
Structure: Mozilla Foundation (2003) created to house
the project. Owns subsidiary for­profit companies.
Distinct hierarchy in the management:
● Mitchell Baker and Brendan Eich function as Benevolent
Dictators.
● Individuals given authority to make decisions: Sheriff,
Performance Guru, Super Reviewer.

22. Process: Each tool has documentation about etiquette
and best use, how to get involved, how to make best use
of your time, decision making, etc.
A culture of quality and respect is reiterated throughout.
Very strict processes for code review and testing slow
down the development processes.
Decision­making by authorized individuals (

23. Members: In addition to development community, have
Spread Firefox project members (gives specific role to
anyone, despite technical ability). Also has active
community contributing add­on products.
Mitchell Baker – Chief Lizard Wrangler
Is passionate about building and maintaining
Community and creates roles most other OSS
Projects neglect.

24. Apache Shared Purpose
The Apache projects are characterized by a
collaborative, consensus based development
process, an open and pragmatic software license,
and a desire to create high quality software that
leads the way in its field.
Apache Server product is the industry leader with
47% of market share.

25. Apache Structure
Origin: Apache began in February 1995 as a
combined effort to coordinate existing fixes to the
NCSA httpd
Structure: Apache Software Foundation (1999)
provides org, legal and financial support to projects
Each project has a core developer team (Project
Management Committee) with authority to design its
own governing rules.

26. Apache Process
Mailing list for communication, including
proposing changes to code
Project Management Committees (PMC) vote on
changes to code.
History of informal networks means less formal
processes continue.
Consensus and committee­driven
)

27. Apache Members
User: Uses software; contributes to the projects by
providing feedback. Participates by helping other users,
Developer: Contributes to a project in the form of code,
documentation, testing.
Committer: Developer with write access to the code
repository. Directly contributes code, reviews developer
code.
PMC member: Elected due to merit. Votes for the
community­related decisions.

28. Principles of
Open Source
Production

29. User = Contributor
● Everyone is an
owner
● Anyone can fork
the project

30. To Fork or Not to Fork

31. Leadership Response
● Goal is to lower barriers to being a
contributor
● Build consensus
● Hold conversations in public

32. People are free, independent, self­
directed beings
● Projects are largely
volunteer driven
● Participants choose
what they want to
work on
● More than one person
may work on solving
same problem

33. Leadership Response
● Keep product modular
● Every user is a potential volunteer
● Distribute tasks (management and technical)
“...Leadership in an open source community
comes not from leverage or control, but from
finding common interests and expertly managing
what is volunteered.” ­Fogel

34. Do­ocracy, Not Democracy
● Actions matter more than opinions
People should feel that their connection to a project, and
influence over it, is directly proportional to their contributions.
● Voting systems
+1
0
­1

35. Community is an asset
Members value the community
Give a little, get a lot: Giving back
User/developers benefit from being
part of a larger community

36. Community is an asset
The Community values its members
● Time invested in maintaining community
● Creating roles
● Mythology
● Social capital and recognition of contributions
● Gatherings to bring people face to face

37. Case Study: Fedora
Fedora is a Linux based operating system.
It is built by a community – The Fedora Project.
They community is “contributor centric”
Focuses on building strong, educated users
Contributors
Contributors make up about 5% of the community

38. Fedora's Four Foundations
100% legal, redistributable: Content, Everyone has something to give.
websites, artwork, code, everything Disagreement, then discussion, then
consensus
Deliver Technical Excellence Innovation changes the world
Upstream Collaboration is key We are eager to do the heavy lifting
Feature process allows contributors A rapid release cycle
to showcase their skills Community R&D lab
Red Hat hires people based on work done Red Hat does not control the community
in Fedora
Source: “Cultivating Contribution”, Tom Calloway, 2009

39. Well­Defined Communication
Documented and
transparent
● Vital for collaborative
design
● Designed to capture the
distributed knowledge of
community, make voices
heard

40. Rigorous Contribution Process
● Contributor agreements
● Controlled ability to commit the product
● Release management (manager)

41. Is there a road map?
Photo by Wade from Oklohoma

42. Social Sourcing
A project organizing approach that gets
diverse stakeholders to participate in
the process, thus creating sustainable
community.
Goal: Create a vibrant, healthy
community that shares in stewarding
the product.

43. Your Own Preparedness
Find something you are passionate about
Set the tone
­ Keep conversations public
­ Nip rudeness in the bud
­ Involve others from the start

44. Example: GetPaid
• Ecommerce product for Plone
• Provides payment processing and simple store
• www.plonegetpaid.com

45. Social Sourcing Process
Study the market
- Benchmark
- Don't reinvent the wheel
Set the stage
- Name your project
- Create a good mission
- Set up communications tools (website, list, etc)
Put together a compelling plan
- Clarify where the project is going

46. Social Sourcing Process
Recruit and engage
- Make it easy for people to work with the
project
Gather necessary resources
Bite off a manageable chunk to do
- Release early and often!
Celebrate successes
­ Recognize contributors
­ Track progress and communicate about it

47. Learn More
Chris Johnson | Tirza Hollenhorst
cjj@ifpeople.net | tirzalyn@ifpeople.net
www.ifpeople.net (see Learn section)
678-608-3408

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