Delivered to SFSCon in Bozano, Italy in November to 2019, speaker Deborah Bryant discussions challenges and the need for greater awareness and understanding of open source software licenses, growing confusions and challenges.

1. Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty
FOSS Things to Pay Attention to in 2020
Deborah Bryant
Sr. Director, Open Source Program Office
@debbryant

2. Warning:
I am not a lawyer
The work of education and awareness
is in everyone’s interest.

3. Licensing
Sets the rules of engagement.
Allows for adoption and innovation.
Enables an open ecosystem.

4. Watch for: lack of awareness of the
importance of licenses among those
new to open development

5. Applying license makes your
code useable.
Does not = bureaucracy.

6. Watch for: Increasing corporate adoption
and participation in open source.

7. A good thing, and a thing to watch for balance...

8. Red Hat’s stake as a reference model for other
companies.
Community growth
Strong communities keep our product lines stable.
Community participation
We help make it, so we can support it.
Diverse innovation
Broad set of global talent sparks immense creativity.
Rapid development cycles
Communities can support faster cadences.

9. Watch for: Marketing terms of art
designed to muddle open source.

10. Saying “commercial open source software”
is like saying “salsa sauce.”
(open source is commercial)

11. Watch for: Business models conflated
with free and open source software.

12. Don’t confuse open core
with open source.
Open core is a business model.
Open source is a development model.

13. “The open-core model primarily involves offering
a ‘core’ or feature-limited version of a software
product as free and open-source software, while
offering ‘commercial’ versions or add-ons as
proprietary software.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-core_model

14. Participation is Constrained
By definition, avenues of innovation will be
blocked, because an open core company will not
want to allow contributors to add new features
that match the software’s “premium” features.
Community is Devalued
“... [W]e didn’t open source [MongoDB] to get
help from the community, to make the product
better. We open sourced as a freemium strategy;
to drive adoption.” - MongoDB CEO Dev
Ittycheria, June 2019
Vendor Lock-In
Premium features, like any proprietary software,
increases the aspect of vendor lock-in for
customers.
Deployment Constrained
Customers are either forced to pay with licenses
like SSPL, or forbid use of any “hybrid license”
product for fear of unsanctioned licenses
entering a business IT environment.
Source: https://www.cbronline.com/interview/mongodb-ceo-interview
Things that bring pause about open core contributors

15. Pause for thought...
and Q&A.

16. ➢ What can we do to ensure
free and open source stays open?
➢ How can we encourage
corporate contribution?
➢ How can we make it easier for us all to
advocate and educate?
➢ How can Red Hat and OSI* each help?
*Speaker is currently on the Open Source initiative Board

17. facebook.com/redhatcommunity
twitter.com/RedHatOpen
Red Hat’s Open Source Program Office is
passionate about, and dedicated to, providing
business-useful insights into community
management and success for our fellow Red Hat
associates and the entire open source ecosystem.
Thank you
Deborah Bryant @debbryant dbryant@redhat.com