An Open Source Approach to Collaboration

An Open Source Approach to Collaboration Chris Johnson Tirza Hollenhorst cjj@ifpeople.net tirzalyn@ifpeople.net 678 608 3408 678 608 3408 wwww.ifpeople.net www.ifpeople.net

About Us ● Scientists by training ● Lived in 7 countries ● Cofounded ifPeople (2003, Argentina) ● Social Enterprise ● Partnership-Based ● Strategy-Centered

We help our clients use tech to nurture effective, long-term relationships with stakeholders. Click to edit Master subtitle style

The Challenge Problems larger than one org can solve ● Need to use resource efficiently ● Lack of culture of collaboration ● Duplication of effort Photo by foxypar4

Open Source Helps Distribute the burden Diverse perspectives enrich the final product Focus on creating value for users Give everyone a voice Photo by km6xo

How? ● Give people the rights ● Focus on the community ● Appropriate leadership Quality product will emerge!

What is Open Source?

Open Source is NOT ● Free beer (freeware) ● Twitter (free services) ● Anyone can change anything (and break) software ● Experimental projects by underground hackers ● Used only by geeks

Open Source is... License Product Means of Production Img: Vector Portal

License ● Governs the rights to the product created ● You have the right to: ● Modify ● Copy ● Use in any way ● Distribute ==> need to have the source “Free as in Freedom”

Understanding Open Source Community

Shared Purpose “The reason that the Fedora community exists is to encourage and empower the awesomeness that exists in the world, to bring people together, and to share the awesome results with everyone.” Source: “Cultivating Contribution”, Tom Calloway, 2009

Processes ● How to organize people and innovation for a hard problem: creating software. ● Design ● Development ● Release management ● Quality control ● Maintenance ● Marketing

Open Source Community Members Contributors (5%)) Participants (15%)) PARTICIPATE Consumers (80%) SHARE SEEK Source: “Cultivating Contribution”, Tom Calloway, 2009

Structure ● Governing body (foundation, company, etc) – Handles contributor agreements and access to code ● Built around modularity of the code base – People or teams take responsibility for a module ● Often times informal structure

Technology ● Code repository ● Communications: ● Issue tracker ● Mailing list ● Instant messaging ● Website and/or wiki

Graphic by @ambrin based on work by Christopher Johnson and Jon Stahl

Community Case Studies ● Mozilla Foundation / Firefox ● Apache Software Foundation / Apache Server

Shared Purpose: The Mozilla project is a global community of people who believe that openness, innovation, and opportunity are key to the continued health of the Internet. Product: Firefox web browser with ~23% market share. Other projects include Thunderbird (email application) and Bugzilla (software development tool).

Origin: AOL acquired Netscape; Netscape announced in 1998 that Communicator product would be available as free, open source software. Structure: Mozilla Foundation (2003) created to house the project. Owns subsidiary forprofit companies. Distinct hierarchy in the management: ● Mitchell Baker and Brendan Eich function as Benevolent Dictators. ● Individuals given authority to make decisions: Sheriff, Performance Guru, Super Reviewer.

Process: Each tool has documentation about etiquette and best use, how to get involved, how to make best use of your time, decision making, etc. A culture of quality and respect is reiterated throughout. Very strict processes for code review and testing slow down the development processes. Decisionmaking by authorized individuals (

Members: In addition to development community, have Spread Firefox project members (gives specific role to anyone, despite technical ability). Also has active community contributing addon products. Mitchell Baker – Chief Lizard Wrangler Is passionate about building and maintaining Community and creates roles most other OSS Projects neglect.

Apache Shared Purpose The Apache projects are characterized by a collaborative, consensus based development process, an open and pragmatic software license, and a desire to create high quality software that leads the way in its field. Apache Server product is the industry leader with 47% of market share.

Apache Structure Origin: Apache began in February 1995 as a combined effort to coordinate existing fixes to the NCSA httpd Structure: Apache Software Foundation (1999) provides org, legal and financial support to projects Each project has a core developer team (Project Management Committee) with authority to design its own governing rules.

Apache Process Mailing list for communication, including proposing changes to code Project Management Committees (PMC) vote on changes to code. History of informal networks means less formal processes continue. Consensus and committeedriven )

Apache Members User: Uses software; contributes to the projects by providing feedback. Participates by helping other users, Developer: Contributes to a project in the form of code, documentation, testing. Committer: Developer with write access to the code repository. Directly contributes code, reviews developer code. PMC member: Elected due to merit. Votes for the communityrelated decisions.

Principles of Open Source Production

User = Contributor ● Everyone is an owner ● Anyone can fork the project

To Fork or Not to Fork

Leadership Response ● Goal is to lower barriers to being a contributor ● Build consensus ● Hold conversations in public

People are free, independent, self directed beings ● Projects are largely volunteer driven ● Participants choose what they want to work on ● More than one person may work on solving same problem

Leadership Response ● Keep product modular ● Every user is a potential volunteer ● Distribute tasks (management and technical) “...Leadership in an open source community comes not from leverage or control, but from finding common interests and expertly managing what is volunteered.” Fogel

Doocracy, Not Democracy ● Actions matter more than opinions People should feel that their connection to a project, and influence over it, is directly proportional to their contributions. ● Voting systems +1 0 1

Community is an asset Members value the community Give a little, get a lot: Giving back User/developers benefit from being part of a larger community

Community is an asset The Community values its members ● Time invested in maintaining community ● Creating roles ● Mythology ● Social capital and recognition of contributions ● Gatherings to bring people face to face

Case Study: Fedora Fedora is a Linux based operating system. It is built by a community – The Fedora Project. They community is “contributor centric” Focuses on building strong, educated users Contributors Contributors make up about 5% of the community

Fedora's Four Foundations 100% legal, redistributable: Content, Everyone has something to give. websites, artwork, code, everything Disagreement, then discussion, then consensus Deliver Technical Excellence Innovation changes the world Upstream Collaboration is key We are eager to do the heavy lifting Feature process allows contributors A rapid release cycle to showcase their skills Community R&D lab Red Hat hires people based on work done Red Hat does not control the community in Fedora Source: “Cultivating Contribution”, Tom Calloway, 2009

WellDefined Communication Documented and transparent ● Vital for collaborative design ● Designed to capture the distributed knowledge of community, make voices heard

Rigorous Contribution Process ● Contributor agreements ● Controlled ability to commit the product ● Release management (manager)

Is there a road map? Photo by Wade from Oklohoma

Social Sourcing A project organizing approach that gets diverse stakeholders to participate in the process, thus creating sustainable community. Goal: Create a vibrant, healthy community that shares in stewarding the product.

Your Own Preparedness Find something you are passionate about Set the tone Keep conversations public Nip rudeness in the bud Involve others from the start

Example: GetPaid • Ecommerce product for Plone • Provides payment processing and simple store • www.plonegetpaid.com

Social Sourcing Process Study the market - Benchmark - Don't reinvent the wheel Set the stage - Name your project - Create a good mission - Set up communications tools (website, list, etc) Put together a compelling plan - Clarify where the project is going

Social Sourcing Process Recruit and engage - Make it easy for people to work with the project Gather necessary resources Bite off a manageable chunk to do - Release early and often! Celebrate successes Recognize contributors Track progress and communicate about it

Learn More Chris Johnson | Tirza Hollenhorst cjj@ifpeople.net | tirzalyn@ifpeople.net www.ifpeople.net (see Learn section) 678-608-3408

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An Open Source Approach to Collaboration

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