In the last decade, the open source development model has been extraordinarily successful. However, this success came at a cost. Today, we are experiencing an explosion of open source projects, escalating competition amongst projects, and commercial interests driving projects at an ever increasing rate. To succeed in the long run, open source projects need to employ a set of management techniques to overcome these issues. To illustrate how this is accomplished, we will draw on the 10 year history of the Xen project as a case study. Xen started in 2003 with strong university roots, quickly evolving into a thriving code-centric project with a development culture very similar to the Linux kernel. The project was instrumental in creating the cloud computing space as we know it today. Large companies such as Amazon, Citrix, and Rackspace, as well as many others, were able to build thriving businesses using open source Xen. Yet five years later, the project started struggling in multiple areas: it failed to engage its user base, becoming inward focused, and suffering from fragmentation caused by pressure from commercial interests. As a result, Xen lost the support of a number of key Linux distributions. Xen started to be perceived as old and outdated, despite a swelling user base, a growing and diversifying contributor community, an increasing number of Xen-based commercial solutions, and numerous Xen-powered open source projects. Some onlookers even predicted the imminent demise of the project. The project clearly had an image problem, which could have become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But, because of a program of cultural change initiated 2 years ago, the Xen project of 2013 is no longer crippled by the problems which nearly caused its downfall. We will explore the causes of the issues which arose, highlighting mistakes that were made, and revealing their effect on the community. We will also show how almost any issue that threatens the success of an open source project can be addressed using a combination of good community management, excellent collaboration infrastructure, wise marketing, and good governance to align the interests of a project’s stake-holders. By employing each of these techniques in a complementary fashion, we can ensure the long-term success of a project.

1. Lars Kurth
Director, Open Source, Citrix
Community Manger, Xen Project lars_kurth

2. Was a contributor to various projects
Worked in parallel computing, tools,
mobile and now virtualization
Long history in change projects
Community guy at Symbian Foundation
Learned how NOT to do stuff
Community guy for the Xen Project
Working for Citrix
Accountable to Xen Project Advisory Board

4. 0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
Projected
Source: The 2013 Future of Open Source Survey Results
More than 1 Projects Million Today

6. Late 90’s
Today
Individuals & Hobbyist's Still about Individuals
But, a majority are employees
Companies have a huge stake

7. and pressure to succeed

8. Features
How many users you have
How many vendors back you
How you are seen in the press
…
Different Management
Disciplines

9. In many areas

10. Case Study

11. An Open Source Hypervisor
> 10M Users
Powering some of the biggest Clouds in Production
Amazon Web Services, Rackspace Public Cloud, Terremark, …
Several sub-projects
Xen Hypervisor, XAPI management tools, Mirage OS, Mobile Hypervisor
Linux Foundation Collaborative Project
Sponsored by Amazon Web Services, AMD, Bromium, Calxeda, CA Technologies,
Cisco, Citrix, Google, Intel, NetApp, Oracle, Samsung and Verizon
10 years old

12. Fixes that were applied
(there may be others)
Effect this had
Symptoms Consequences for Xen
Four Key Issues
At the end : Reflection & Tools

14. Unwritten Rules
Undefined Roles
Lack of Upfront
Collaboration

15. Hard to join the project
Vendors got frustrated
Hard to work with the
project

16. 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now
Xen
Governance
Canonical drops
Xen
RedHat drops
Xen in RHEL6
Roadmap
& Release
Management
Another key
vendor nearly dropped Xen
Technical
Coordination
Team
1st KVM
release
Growth potential
was limited early
Xen becomes
LF Collaborative Project

17. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2010 2011 2012 2013 (H1)
UPC Spectra Logic Redhat iweb
GridCentric Calxeda Fujitsu (Misc)
AWS (Academia) John Hopkins University AMD
Linaro Oracle NSA Intel

19. Inwards focus
– Not working with upstreams
(branched kernel and QEMU)
– Not working with distros
(users are not “our” problem)
Created “pain for distros”
Intercommunity Friction
Introvert Community
Image Problem

20. 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now
IBM, VMware, Red Hat and Citrix
Agree on PVOPS in Linux kernel
Linux Guest
support for Xen
Linux Host
support for Xen
Upstream QEMU
complete
Actively
working
with
distros

21. Improved Relationships & Trust
Xen Developers Care about Users
Xen becoming easier to use
Improved Image in the media and FOSS community

23. 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now
Focus on events for the existing community only
Enough Papers
Enough Talks
Enough Communication
By enough vendors
Xen Books
Competing Projects Excelled at Communication
Change of Guard
Empty Promises
Blog 1 Person

24. Project became an “invisible man”
Belief that Xen is not open source
Slowed the growth of the user base
Perception: the project is “dead”
Constant stories in the press that the project is dying
First: Defiance – this is all “Fud”
Then: Project started to believe this too

25. 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now
Confidence Building
Community Blog
Events v2
Community spokespeople

26. Project perception has changed
Neutral to positive
No more “Xen is not OSS / Xen is Dead”
New influx of people to the project
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
2010 2011 2012 2013 (H1)
Talks / Events / Orgs

28. CompaniesCommunity

29. Governance Matters
Projects don’t exist in isolation
Poor Marketing and Communication can kill you
Good project sponsors can make a difference
A project needs to constantly evolve

30. Multi-discipline Complexity

32. Follow Industry News
Follow Project News
Adopt Software
Engage with Users
Trial Software
Engage with Industry
Evangelize
Contribute
Customize
Lead
Think of the funnel boundary as a
permeable membrane, not a fixed
border
It can take >2 years for changes at
the top of the funnel to make a
difference at the bottom
The Funnel has feedback loops:
what happens at the top can affect
the bottom

33. Follow Industry News
Follow Project News
Adopt Software
Engage with Users
Trial Software
Engage with Industry
Evangelize
Contribute
Customize
Lead
Control the permeability and shape of the funnel
Activities Attributes Events
Project Scope E.g. Xen on ARM, Mirage OS
Increase the width and thus the
potential market for the project
How can we influence how the
Community Funnel works?
Some items are in your control
Others - such as what the competition does - are not!

34. Follow Industry News
Follow Project News
Adopt Software
Engage with Users
Trial Software
Engage with Industry
Evangelize
Contribute
Customize
Lead
Example: Factors influencing early
stages of open source software
adoption
Documentation
Ease of Use
Training
On-boarding

35. Follow Industry News
Follow Project News
Adopt Software
Engage with Users
Trial Software
Engage with Industry
Evangelize
Contribute
Customize
Lead
More People drop out
Funnel
becomes
narrower
Negative Feedback:
vendors may
stop contributing
Bad Press
Example: Negative feedback loop

36. The Community Funnel is an excellent internal sales tool
Reason: Sales and Business people understand funnels
It helps you understand what is happening
It helps prioritize what to focus on
Covers the time dimension : some issues take longer to fix than others
Forces you to consider the “Big Picture”

38. Follow Industry News
Follow Project News
Adopt Software
Engage with Users
Trial Software
Engage with Industry
Evangelize
Contribute
Customize
Lead
2011
Event Presence
Ease of Use
Press
Governance
Social Media
Neutrality
WebSite
Collaboration Values
Brand
Documentation Getting Started
Support
Volunteer Programs
Community Programs
Platforms for Self Promotion
Business Opportunities
Communication
Extend Project Scope
Distros Training
Diversity

39. Follow Industry News
Follow Project News
Adopt Software
Engage with Users
Trial Software
Engage with Industry
Evangelize
Contribute
Customize
Lead
Event Presence
Ease of Use
Press
Governance
Social Media
Neutrality
WebSite
Collaboration Values
Brand
Documentation Getting Started
Support
Volunteer Programs
Community Programs
Platforms for Self Promotion
Communication
Extend Project Scope
Business Opportunities
Distros Training
Diversity
Distros
Volunteer Programs
Community Programs
ValuesCollaboration
Ease of Use
WebSite Documentation Getting Started
Governance Neutrality Business Opportunities
Press Social Media Brand
ARM + Mirage OS
Event Presence CommunicationEvent Presence Communication
Diversity
NOW

40. To succeed, a wide range of “community” and
“management” tools
need to be applied continuously

41. Please rate the talk!

42. Flickr:
“Messy Apartment” by Ryo Chijiiwa
“The Ivory Tower” by Daniel Parks
“Desert Road 9” by LabyrinthX
Other Images:
By Lars Kurth
Acquired from Shutterstock
Xen Project:
www.xenproject.org
wiki.xenproject.org
lists.xenproject.org
xenbits.xenproject.org
@xen_org
##xen
Funnel:
talesfromthecommunity.wordpress.com