Openbravo World Conference
The Community Imperative
Barcelona, April 19, 2009
Speaker: Matt Asay, VP of Business Development, Alfresco

Agenda
Open Source Rising
• Market data on open-source adoption
• Reasons for open-source adoption
Community Mechanics
Openbravo’s Community Outreach
Community Begins with You
Concluding Remarks
Page 2

Open source is now mainstream
Survey Question: Do you use, or plan to use in the next
budget year, an open-source project or product as an
alternative to commercial software?
63
34
Operating Systems
85
54
53
Applications Software
73
75
Infrastructure Software 58
90
15
None 27
2
0 20 40 60 80 100
Percentage of Respondents
Currently U in This Budget Y
sing ear PlantoU in N Budget Y
se ext ear Currently U and Planto U in N Budget Y
sing se ext ear
Source: Gartner 2008
Number of respondents = 274; Multiple responses allowed.
53-55% to adopt open-source by 2010
Page 3

But what about open-source ERP adoption?
60% to adopt open-source ERP by 2010
Source: Forrester, 2009
Page 4

Why open source?
Survey Question: Select your organization’s top three most important reasons for using
open-source software.
Low er Total C os t of Ow ners hip
Low or Zero Licens e C os ts
Lower Total Cos t of Support
Open Stan dards an d Open Developm ent Proces s es
Acces s to Source Code
Im proved Security
Vendor Independence and Flexibility
Availability o f Hig her Qu ality Softwa re Building Blocks
Availa bility of N eeded Applications
Bes t-in-Breed Solutions
Shorter developm ent tim e by Us ing Off-the-Shelf,
C om m od itized Com ponents
Inves tm ent Protection
Im proved ROI Bas e d on Current C om m ercial Off-the-Shelf
Software/Application Life Cycle Cos ts
Availability of Pretes ted a nd Integra ted Solution Stacks
Fa s ter Tim e-to-Ma rket for IT Solutions
Increas ed Innovation Oppo rtunities for IT Profes s ionals
Fas te r Procurem ent of Softw are
Others
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Source: Gartner Pe rce nta ge of Re sponde nts
Number of respondents = 274; Mean summary: Three responses allowed.
Page 5

But it’s not just about cost
“Open source produces better software.”
• “Open source software solutions
will directly compete with closed-
source products in all …markets.”
– 85% of enterprises currently use OSS
– 45% use OSS for mission-critical
applications (Continues to grow)
• Why?
– 65% say open source has sparked
innovation inside their companies
– 67% … for lowered costs
• “Lower TCO and flexibility to launch
and develop cost-prohibitive projects
continue to be top reasons for using
OSS”
– 81% … for better quality software
Sources: Gartner (2008), CIO Insight (2006), IDC (2006)
Page 6

It’s also about (lowering) risk
• Most IT projects fail
• Open source de-risks software
acquisition:
– Try before you buy
– Stop your subscription if the vendor
stops providing value
• Worst case:
– Project dies and you’re out $xx,xxx or $xxx,xxx, not
$x,xxx,xxx
• IT project failure becomes less
probabilistic and less painful
7
Page 7

…In many ways, open source is working
8
Page 8

So open source is being used in more mission-critical tasks
Open source is becoming the heart of enterprise computing
Page 9

Agenda
Open Source Rising
Community Mechanics
• The myth of open-source community
• How commercial open-source communities operate
Openbravo’s Community Outreach
Community Begins with You
Concluding Remarks
Page 10

It’s no longer about whether open source will succeed…but how
Whether measured in terms of lines of code added or new projects,
open-source growth is phenomenal
The real differentiator going forward is community involvement
11
Page 11

Just what is “The Community” supposed to do?
Page 12

Community mostly happens at the periphery of a project
● <15 core developers do 85-100% of
core development work
● 1000/10/1 (Users/ Bug Reporters/ Patch
The Shape of
Submitters)
Community
● Community is difficult to achieve:
● 72% of “open source developers” write
code for others like themselves
● Most projects (55%) get no outside
involvement at all
● BUT…even big community projects
are written by vendors
● The best place to solicit community
involvement is in complements to a
project, not the core
Sources: Marten Mickos (MySQLUC 2005); O’Mahony & West, 2005; Mockus et al., 2005
Page 13

Why doesn’t community work as advertised?
• Time
– Who has time to write (lots of)
free software?
– Answer: Those that are
employed to do so
• Interest
– Who will take out the trash?
• Aptitude
– Writing an ERP system is very
hard/not many people can
– The higher up the stack you go,
the fewer the developers
• Familiarity with project
– Poor documentation makes it
hard to understand a project
– Monolithic code base takes time
to learn (Most won’t bother)
Page 14

We need more than a one-company community
Page 15

What community should look like
Page 16

Community begins when self-interest meets software
Page 17

Agenda
Open Source Rising
Community Mechanics
Openbravo’s Community Outreach
• Modularity and the Firefox-ization of Openbravo
• Openbravo Forge
Community Begins with You
Concluding Remarks
Page 18

Making Openbravo more like…Firefox
The Firefox phenomenon Openbravo’s Firefox moment in v2.50
• >6,800 third-party add-ons • Casual development depends upon
• 45 full-time developers…but: modularity
– 1,000 community code contributors; • Openbravo modularity enables
– >20,000 nightly testers and
community first, company second
– >500,000 beta testers
– Start with Openbravo core, make it your own
– >50 million daily users and >125 million total
– Functionality, integration with 3rd-party software,
users
localization, etc.
• Number of add-ons before Mozilla’s
• Community must derive significant
re-architecture?
value from Openbravo, and beyond
– Roughly zero
Openbravo
– Compare with Apple Safari and Microsoft IE,
which also are weak on community – Commercial support from Openbravo
– Commercial opportunities that happen beyond
Openbravo, the company
Community starts when the company gets out of the way, and when
architecture facilitates an add-on community
Page 19

Openbravo Forge: A place for community to begin
• Announced in early April
• Openbravo Forge allows users to
register projects and to have
access to
community/development tools,
e.g., bug tracking, Wiki, forums,
etc.
• Makes it easier for the community
to develop (public or private)
industry vertical templates,
modules and localizations
• Additionally, Openbravo Forge
allows the commercialization of
Openbravo community products
• Enables the community without
controlling the community
Page 20

Openbravo is architected for community.
Now it’s your turn.
Page 21

Agenda
Open Source Rising
Community Mechanics
Openbravo’s Community Outreach
Community Begins with You
• The more you contribute, the more you benefit
• Ask not…
Concluding Remarks
Page 22

Learning from JBoss’ community
2002 2005 2006
2004
2003
2X 3.5X
3X 1.5X
Page 23

Openbravo: What does it mean for you?
• Openbravo
– Global QA
– Leveraged development (Code, language packs, business processes, etc.)
– Lowered barriers to trying Openbravo (means lower cost of sale)
• Partners
– Ease of customization, enhancements
– Chance to participate with Openbravo in development
• Steer the roadmap in your favor
– Commercial opportunities extending the Openbravo platform
• Customers
– Co-development: Make it your Openbravo
– Lower prices
– Improved product (Performance, functionality, tailored to individual needs)
– The more you contribute, the less the potential for lock-in
Page 24

Ask not what Openbravo can do for you…
Page 25

Agenda
Open Source Rising
Community Mechanics
Openbravo’s Community Outreach
Community Begins with You
Concluding Remarks
Page 26