Building A Strong Open Source Ecosystem - Lessons From Around The World. MyGOSSCON 2008. Ms. Pia Waugh President, Software Freedom International

1. FOSS:
Building a strong ecosystem
5th November 2008
Pia Waugh
Consultant – Waugh Partners
Founding Member – OLPC Friends
President – Software Freedom International
pia@waughpartners.com.au

2. FOSS?

3. FOSS?
Software?

4. FOSS?
Software?
Development methodology?

5. FOSS?
Software?
Development methodology?
Industry?

6. FOSS?
Software?
Development methodology?
Industry?
Community?

7. FOSS?
Software?
Development methodology?
Industry?
Community?
Open Standards?

8. FOSS
Software
Development methodology
Industry
Community
Open Standards
And, and, and....

9. FOSS is an ecosystem of
people

10. The Idea

11. The Idea goes public

12. People can see the Idea

13. Get the Idea

14. And contribute to the Idea

15. So the Idea can evolve

16. Community distributions

17. Commercial distributions

18. Local User Groups

19. FOSS is an ecosystem
of people...
● Projects
●
Community distributions
●
Commercial distributions
●
Local User Groups
●
Industry
●
Users and innovators
●
Advocates

20. ... who do stuff
● Software development
●
Support
●
Documentation
●
Implementation
●
Demos and talks
●
User meetings
●
Outreach events

21. Many do it
for fun

22. Many do it
for work

23. Many do it to
improve the world

25. Communities are driven by
● Individuals
●
Technical needs
●
Vision
●
Grassroot efforts

26. The roles of
Government
?

27. Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs

28. Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs
●
Community responds to user needs

29. Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs
●
Community responds to user needs
●
Skills development

30. Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs
●
Community responds to user needs
●
Skills development
●
Best practices

31. Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs
●
Community responds to user needs
●
Skills development
●
Best practices
●
Reduction of FOSS procurement blockages

32. Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs
●
Community responds to user needs
●
Skills development
●
Best practices
●
Reduction of FOSS procurement blockages
●
Benefits of FOSS systems & industry

33. Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs
●
Community responds to user needs
●
Skills development
●
Best practices
●
Reduction of FOSS procurement blockages
●
Benefits of FOSS systems & industry
●
Ask your vendors about FOSS

34. Ensure there is a need
Cost savings – Migration or consolidation
Sustainability – National Archives of Australia
Flexibility & Collaboration – eGovernment
Trusted Systems – eVoting – Diebold, ACT vs
Victoria

35. Government:
Developing FOSS
● Innovate with existing tools

36. Government:
Developing FOSS
● Innovate with existing tools
●
Use FOSS collaboration methods and tools

37. Government:
Developing FOSS
● Innovate with existing tools
●
Use FOSS collaboration methods and tools
●
Encourage contribution to projects where
appropriate – bugs reports, code, docs

38. Government:
Developing FOSS
● Innovate with existing tools
●
Use FOSS collaboration methods and tools
●
Encourage contribution to projects where
appropriate – bugs reports, code, docs
● Whitebranding easy Government adoption

39. Government:
Supporting Communities
● Communities are bottom up, not top down

40. Government:
Supporting Communities
● Communities are bottom up, not top down
●
Support enthusiasm within departments

41. Government:
Supporting Communities
● Communities are bottom up, not top down
●
Support enthusiasm within departments
●
Encourage participation in FOSS communities

42. Government:
Supporting Communities
● Communities are bottom up, not top down
●
Support enthusiasm within departments
●
Encourage participation in FOSS communities
●
Give staff time to learn and develop

43. Government:
Supporting Communities
● Communities are bottom up, not top down
●
Support enthusiasm within departments
●
Encourage participation in FOSS communities
●
Give staff time to learn and develop
●
Support user groups – venue, pizza, hardware

44. Government:
Supporting Communities
● Communities are bottom up, not top down
●
Support enthusiasm within departments
●
Encourage participation in FOSS communities
●
Give staff time to learn and develop
●
Support user groups – venue, pizza, hardware
●
Run/support events – hackfests, competitions

45. FOSS in Australia
✔ Private – strong user community
✔ Education – growing rapidly
✔ The Open Source Industry – highly skilled
globally successful and local development
✔ The Open Source community – large
and skilled community, project leaders
several local development labs
✔ Government – great case studies, lacking
cohesive leadership and strategy

46. FOSS in the
Australian Government
➢ Over 60% of agencies using FOSS
➢
Leadership from flagship agencies
➢
NAA – archival of Government data
➢
NSW Judicial Commission – core biz apps
➢
AGIMO – Government collaboration – GovDex
➢ NSW DET – FOSS in education
➢ Agencies participating in the community
➢
Increase in pilots and trials
“Open Source is the future” - Patrick Callioni, Division Manager, AGIMO

47. World experiences

48. World experiences

49. World experiences

50. World experiences

51. World experiences
●
Sustainability Education Local industry
●
Security ● ●
●
Avoiding vendor Learning Flexibility
●
Control ● ●
lock-in Localisation Cost savings
● Scalability ● ●
●
Control over Community Gov investment
●
Autonomous ● ●
Data IT industry
●
Skills devel ●
● Self-determination bootstrapping

52. Thank you & Questions
Useful links
Linux Australia - http://linux.org.au/
Open Source Industry Australia - http://osia.net.au/
Australian Service for Knowledge of Open Source - http://ask-oss.mq.edu.au
Australian Government collaboration portal - http://www.govdex.gov.au/
Australian FOSS Census - http://census.waughpartners.com.au/
Pia Waugh
pia@waughpartners.com.au
Waugh Partners
http://waughpartners.com.au
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