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Free and open source software (FOSS) project communities continue to grow and thrive. When such projects reach a certain critical point in their growth, corporations express interest in participating. Corporations have more stringent and robust software intellectual property (IP) management needs, however, and projects are not always up to the task. Neutral non-profit FOSS foundations have proved to be a solution to these problems, providing for the IP management needs of corporations while offering additional business and technical services to the project communities to encourage further growth and adoption. This presentation reviews how such neutral non-profit organizations have grown to meet the evolving legal, business, and technical needs of FOSS communities and businesses.
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The Rise and Evolu0on of the Open Source So8ware Founda0on
EOLA 2012 Stephen R. Walli October 2012
The Thesis
FOSS Founda9ons are essen9al to enabling the growth of FOSS Projects when companies want to par9cipate, contribute and adopt.
Two Ra0os
~20 LoC/day 1 bug : 1000 LoC
So8ware Economics
We have shared soIware since we wrote it.
Liberally-‐licensed collabora9vely developed soIware is the best re-‐use strategy.
“Plagiarism” in soIware is good and indeed
necessary.
The Economics of Shared Development
The Economics of Companies Collabora0ng
Founda0ons as IP Management Machines
• This is the history of the FSF, the ASF, the OSDL/Linux Founda9on, and the Eclipse Founda9on
• Regardless of what each founda9on represents to its members and cons9tuencies, what they “do” is IP management.
Henrik Ingo’s Observa0ons Henrik Ingo determined that the 9 largest most vibrant projects are governed independently by founda9ons (hWp://bit.ly/f3O34M) The tenth largest (is company supported) is an order of magnitude smaller
Neutrality and Ownership
“There appears to be a glass ceiling for single vendor projects prohibi9ng their growth from the Large category upwards. ” — Henrik Ingo
What is a FOSS Founda0on?
Founda9ons are non-‐profits* that provide: Legal Structure
Business Opera9ons Technical Services
* But they are s9ll businesses
Founda0ons
* But they are s9ll businesses
Corporate Projects
Corporate Projects
?????
?????
Why does it maKer?
Neutrality encourages contribu9on Clean IP encourages adop9on
Founda9ons act as community centre-‐of-‐gravity
Neutrality Encourages Contribu0on (Inbound)
Neutrality and Ownership
• Successful Projects Grow and Evolve un9l … – Apache SoIware Founda9on – OSDL/Linux Founda9on – Eclipse Founda9on
Clean IP Encourages Adop0on (Outbound)
Legal Structures are Important
• License (inbound/outbound) • Assignments and Contribu9on Licenses • Provenance tracking • Liability and risk management • CommiWer indemnifica9on
Founda0on as Community Centre-‐of-‐Gravity
Crea0ng Strong Communi0es
• Support an Architecture of Par9cipa9on • Make it easy to join the conversa9on • Support and grow commiWers • Support lines of communica9ons • Provide technical services + infrastructure (forges, code signing, etc.)
Conclusions
While liberally licensed shared collabora9ve soIware development may represent the best soIware re-‐use strategy invented, FOSS Founda9ons are essen9al to the par9cipa9on of companies that can grow and sustain FOSS projects and their communi9esn long term
Ques0ons?
Stephen R. Walli Technical Director, Outercurve Founda9on
hWp://www.outercurve.org [email protected]
hWp://stephesblog.blogs.com (Once More unto the Breach) hWp://www.networkworld.com/community/walli
@stephenrwalli
