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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.
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Community War StoriesSquaring the Circle between Business and CommunityLars KurthCommunity Manger, Xen ProjectChairman, Xen Project Advisory BoardDirector, Open Source Business Office, Citrix lars_kurth
About Me
Was a contributor to various projects
Worked in parallel computing, tools, mobile and now virtualization
Community guy at Symbian FoundationLearned how NOT to do stuff
Community guy for the Xen ProjectWorking for CitrixMember of OSS Business OfficeAccountable to Xen Project Advisory BoardChairman of Xen Project Advisory Board
Citrix and Open SourceOpen Source Business Office : open.citrix.com7 people: stewardship of strategic projects and spreading best practices internallyOwn Citrix’ Open Source Strategy
Strategic Projects and Open Source OrganizationsMembership, OSS Leaders, Contributors, Evangelists, …
A few Quite Interesting facts ……about Open Source
Source: The 2014 Future of Open Source Survey Result
A few Quite Interesting facts …
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
A few Quite Interesting facts …
50% of all enterprises adopt OSS software
Julian Manson @ Flickr
A few Quite Interesting facts …
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 @ Flickrtoffehoff @ Flickr
Companies play a role in FOSS
They contribute to oursuccess
Theory War Stories Lessons
Theory:Open Source Flywheel
Development ActivityProduct andExperience
Users
Tools, Process, CultureOption Value, Modularity [1]
Contributions, Reviews,Problem Solving, Leadership
Features, Quality3rd Party Integrations
Feedback, Engagement Trust, Passion
[1] bit.do/optionvalue
Open Source Development Model
Development ActivityProduct andExperience
Users Open Source Development Model
Development ActivityProduct andExperience
Users
Lower development costLower deployment cost and risk
More
BetterMore
CommunityGrowth
Open Source Development ModelMore business opportunities
and momentum
Open Source Development Model
Development ActivityProduct andExperience
Users
Lower development costLower deployment cost and risk
More
BetterMore
CommunityGrowth
More business opportunities and momentum
Open Source Development Model
Development ActivityProduct andExperience
Users
More efficiency andinnovation
Lower development costLower deployment cost and risk
More
Better
Better
More
CommunityGrowth
More business opportunities and momentum
Flywheel Example: Eclipse
2001: Open Sourced by IBM2001 – 2003: Growth from 8 to 80 consortia members
2006: Callisto10 projects, 260 committers
2004: Eclipse Foundation
2011: 10th Birthday273 projects, 1057 committers,50+ MLOC, 174 members(see bit.do/Eclipse-10)
More projects/products/users, improved process, improved option value/modularity, …
…
War Stories:Tragedy of the Commons(sort of)
Moyan Brenn @ Flickr
snoopsmouse @ Flickr
Bruce SchneierInternationally renowned security Technologist
@Bruce_Schneier
Catastrophic is the right word [for Heartbleed]. On the scale of 1 to 10, this is an 11.
So what happened and why?
OpenSSL Stats
Source: Ohloh.net
Growing Codebase
Static and small contributor base1 person maintaining 100 KLoC = Underinvestment
Extremely large user baseCritical infrastructure componentThus impact of Heartbleed is huge
Large user base did not translate into developer community growth
Open Source Development Model
Development Activity
Product andExperience
Users
Broken Growth Cycle
And the root cause?
More Competition amongst projects for finite
resources and attention
snoopsmouse @ Flickr
Massively multi-player beauty Contest
Features
How many users you have
How many vendors back you
How you are seen in the press
…
Communities must excel in
many disciplines
Lessons for Businesses:Not all Open Source projects are the samePerform due diligence before using a project
Using Open Source is not freeExchanging cost against riskOf course: licensing and other implications
Contributing reduces riskEveryone can help with Marketing and PR,raising bugs, improving documentation, …
Vinovyn @ Flickr
Key Takeaway:If you use Open Source
Have an Open Source Strategy
Vinovyn @ Flickr
Lesson for Community LeadersCreate a balanced FlywheelMaster different skills
Vinovyn @ Flickr
Follow Industry News
Follow Project News
Adopt Software
Engage with Users
Trial Software
Engage with Industry
Evangelize
Contribute
Customize
Lead
Community FunnelSee bit.do/Community-FunnelSee bit.do/LinuxConEU13
Activities
Events
Theory:Open Source Flywheelrevisited
The boundary between Business and Communities
Open Source Development Model
Development Activity
Product andExperience
Users
Developerled
Marketing and PR led
Open Source Development Model
Development Activity
Product andExperience
Users
Companystrengths
Communitystrengths
Create a balanced FlywheelMaster many different skills
Vinovyn @ Flickr
Get Companies to help you
Community
CompaniesPeople
Value
War Stories:Undefined Responsibilitiescause problems
Moyan Brenn @ Flickr
Example 1: Meddling
Xen Project Advisory Board trying to push a preferred test harnessover community solution
Paralysis: no new test codewritten
Delay of roll-out of independently hosted Test Farm
Risk of Test Farm not beingadopted
Solution:
• Working group jointly led by community and Advisory Board• Group resolved the issue
Example 2: Pushing Boundaries
HW vendor trying to use private channels to Citrix Xen Project maintainers to get an edge
Committers needed the vendorhelp to progress their goals
Vendor trying to get more and more
Potential of lack of trust in ourXen Project maintainers
Solution:
• A rather difficult conversation• Vendor starting to follow community practices and additionally donating
(non-developer) resources to the project
Example 3: Growth Problems
Vendors and individuals competing for review time from stretched maintainer / reviewer base
Patch queue growingFrustration by vendors & maintainers
Potential of slowing growthPotential of loosing new vendors
Solution: still being discussed
• 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
Undefined / Unclear / Misunderstood / Unenforced
Rules & Responsibilities
Create Pain & Erode Trust
War Stories:Tedious and Business Unfriendly Rules
Moyan Brenn @ Flickr
ASF Trademark Management
Vendors wants to promoteproject at events (swag, booth,collateral, …)
Tedious approval process for every single instance• PMC approval• VP of Trademark approval
(bottleneck)
Frustrated vendorsFrustrated community
Solution:
• Simplify process for common situations• Proposal at bit.do/PMC-TM-management
Tedious and arduousprocesses
Makes it hard forcompanies to help out
Frustration & Tension
Lessons:Clear Rules and ResponsibilitiesRemove tensionCreate trustWorks best when aligned with Flywheel
Business friendly RulesSimple and EasyEnables businesses to help the community
Long term Effect: Community sees value in company participation
Vinovyn @ Flickr
CommunityCompanies
Example: Xen Project
•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
TestWGs
Community
CompaniesAdvisory Board WGs Project Governance
Development and code
Marketing and PR
Final Thoughts
Vinovyn @ Flickr
Running OSS projects well is getting increasinglyDifficult
Maria Ly @ Flickr
Successful projects perform some functions
similar to
successful companies
OSS Foundation = Magnify Impact
Neutrality / Perception
Support Infrastructure
Expertise / Mentoring
Vendor Network
…
BUT: You still need to do all the right things
With the right Rules there is potential for Symbiosis
Tchami @ Flickr
Tensions between Companiesand Community can leadto Innovation
Thank You!Please rate the talk
www.slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr/
