Open Source has won! Today, most open source developers or users work for commercial entities and more and more companies use open source. Yet open source communities are still about the people, not the companies employing them. This leads to never-ending tension on the boundary between business and community, which only the most successful community leaders manage well. In this talk we will look at some of the basic dynamics playing out in open source communities and introduce some mental models explaining them. We will look at the Open Source Flywheel (inspired by Walton’s Productivity Loop and the Bezos Flywheel) and the Open Source Community Funnel (inspired by Sales Funnels) to explain them. We will then explore the tension between community and businesses in some more detail, in the form of war stories (or case studies). These stories will cover real incidents where business interests and communities were in conflict: some were resolved amicably; others led to significant problems within the community. The stories will span the author’s experience with Eclipse, the Symbian Foundation, Linaro, the Xen Project and other open source projects. We will investigate the underlying issues for each story, draw lessons and link explain them to the mental models we introduced earlier. We will establish best practices for businesses, their employees and community managers to defuse tensions on the boundary of business and community. Mastering the skills to square the circle between business and community is a never-ending challenge. Being able to do so consistently will give your open source project an edge in the competitive world of open source and help secure the long-term future of your project.

1. Lars Kurth
Community Manger, Xen Project
Chairman, Xen Project Advisory Board
Director, Open Source Business Office, Citrix lars_kurth

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

3. Open Source Business Office : open.citrix.com
7 people: stewardship of strategic projects and spreading best practices internally
Own Citrix’ Open Source Strategy
Strategic Projects and Open Source Organizations
Membership, OSS Leaders, Contributors, Evangelists, …

4. Source: The 2014 Future of Open Source Survey Result

5. The # of Projects is growing rapidly
2007: 0.2M projects
Today: 1.0M projects,
100Billion LOC,
10M contributors
2015: 1.8M projects
John Morgan @ Flickr
Simon & His Camera @ Flickr
Kumar Appaiah @ Flickr

6. 50% of all enterprises adopt OSS
software
Julian Manson @ Flickr

7. 30% of companies make it easy for
employees to contribute to projects
Influencing a project’s direction is one
of the main reason for contributing
Nick @ Flickr
toffehoff @ Flickr

10. Open Source Flywheel

11. [1] bit.do/optionvalue

16. 2001: Open Sourced by IBM
2001 – 2003: Growth from 8 to 80
consortia members
2006: Callisto
10 projects, 260 committers
2004: Eclipse Foundation
2011: 10th Birthday
273 projects, 1057 committers,
50+ MLOC, 174 members
(see bit.do/Eclipse-10)
More projects/products/users,
improved process, improved
option value/modularity, …
…

17. Tragedy of the Commons
(sort of)
Moyan Brenn @ Flickr

18. snoopsmouse @ Flickr

19. Bruce Schneier
Internationally renowned security Technologist
@Bruce_Schneier
Catastrophic is the right word
[for Heartbleed]. On the scale
of 1 to 10, this is an 11.

21. Source: Ohloh.net
Growing Codebase
Static and small contributor base
1 person maintaining 100 KLoC =
Underinvestment
Extremely large user base
Critical infrastructure component
Thus impact of Heartbleed is huge

24. snoopsmouse @ Flickr

25. Features
How many users you have
How many vendors back you
How you are seen in the press
…

26. Not all Open Source projects are the same
Perform due diligence before using a project
Using Open Source is not free
Exchanging cost against risk
Of course: licensing and other implications
Contributing reduces risk
Everyone can help with Marketing and PR,
raising bugs, improving documentation, …
Vinovyn @ Flickr

27. If you use Open Source
Have an Open Source Strategy
Vinovyn @ Flickr

28. Create a balanced Flywheel
Master different skills
Vinovyn @ Flickr

29. Follow Industry News
Follow Project News
Adopt Software
Engage with Users
Trial Software
Engage with Industry
Evangelize
Contribute
Customize
Lead
Activities
Events

30. Open Source Flywheel
revisited
The boundary between
Business and Communities

33. Create a balanced Flywheel
Master many different skills
Vinovyn @ Flickr
Get Companies to help you

35. Undefined Responsibilities
cause problems
Moyan Brenn @ Flickr

36. Xen Project Advisory Board trying
to push a preferred test harness
over community solution
Paralysis: no new test code
written
Delay of roll-out of independently
hosted Test Farm
Risk of Test Farm not being
adopted
• Working group jointly led by community and Advisory Board
• Group resolved the issue

37. HW vendor trying to use private
channels to Citrix Xen Project
maintainers to get an edge
Committers needed the vendor
help to progress their goals
Vendor trying to get more and
more
Potential of lack of trust in our
Xen Project maintainers
• A rather difficult conversation
• Vendor starting to follow community practices and additionally donating
(non-developer) resources to the project

38. Vendors and individuals
competing for review time from
stretched maintainer / reviewer
base
Patch queue growing
Frustration by vendors & maintainers
Potential of slowing growth
Potential of loosing new vendors
• Grow reviewer base by identifying capable candidates
• Get backing from vendors to ensure candidates stay engaged in community
(if vendor employee)
• Mentor candidates to get them effective more quickly than normal

40. Tedious and Business
Unfriendly Rules
Moyan Brenn @ Flickr

41. Vendors wants to promote
project at events (swag, booth,
collateral, …)
Tedious approval process
for every single instance
• PMC approval
• VP of Trademark approval
(bottleneck)
Frustrated vendors
Frustrated community
• Simplify process for common situations
• Proposal at bit.do/PMC-TM-management

43. Clear Rules and Responsibilities
Remove tension
Create trust
Works best when aligned with Flywheel
Business friendly Rules
Simple and Easy
Enables businesses to help the community
Long term Effect: Community sees value in
company participation
Vinovyn @ Flickr

44. CommunityCompanies
• PR / AR / Marketing /
Messaging
• Membership Rules /
Trademarks / Legal
• Provide funds to solve
Common Good problems
• Referee of last resort
• Principles (aka Values)
• Roles
• Decision Making
• Project Lifecycle
• Community Initiatives, Best
Practices, …
Advisory Board WGs Project Governance
Test
WGs

46. Vinovyn @ Flickr

47. Maria Ly @ Flickr

49. Neutrality / Perception
Support Infrastructure
Expertise / Mentoring
Vendor Network
…
BUT: You still need to do
all the right things

50. Tchami @ Flickr

52. Please rate the talk
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