Innovation and Online
Communities
Telefónica – Ambassadors of Innovation
Madrid, Oct 18th, 2007
Víctor R. Ruiz
<rvr@blogalia.com>
http://rvr.typepad.com/

About me
IT Consultant and blogger

Creator of Blogalia.com, first blog community/

software “made in Spain” (2002)
Creator of Blogometro, open source

“attention” engine (2003)
Innovation and Online Communities
Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Things I like
open source blogs linux
astronomy science
social networks web 2.0
writing usability copyleft
Innovation and Online Communities
Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

What online communities mean to
me
I live in Canary Islands

I discovered Internet in 1994 and created my

first web site on 1995 (still alive)
My business partners and most of my friends

belong to my online social network
Internet is my hyperlink to the World

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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

In the beginning...
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Cathedral
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Bazaar
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Non-profit Open Source
Communities
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Innovation and Online Communities
Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Debian
Linux distribution

Founded in 1992 by Ian Murdock

Debian Social Contract

Debian Foundation

− Non-profit
− Democratic
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Debian Community
1,040 volunteers/developers

+10,000 packaged programs

Communication tools

− Mailing lists, IRC
− CVS, FTP, Bug trackers
− Some blogs (planet)
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Debian
Debian is one of the oldest open source

communities
Reputation of solid software

Many other projects are based and inspired on

it
− Ubuntu
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Gnome
Desktop Environment for Linux

Set of APIs, developer guidelines and programs

Founded in 1998 by Miguel de Icaza

Gnome Foundation

− Democratic
− Inspired in Debian organization
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Gnome
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Gnome
Many indepedent projects

Communication tools

− Mailing lists
− IRC
− CVS
− Bug trackers
− News sites
− Blogs & Wikis
Innovation and Online Communities
Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Gnome
Sponsored by Sun, IBM, Novell, Intel, Nokia,

RedHat and many others
Very active community, open to business

Gtk+ API is increasingly popular

− OpenMoko: Mobile phones
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Mashups for Innovation:
Corporations +
Open Source Communities
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Nokia
OpenSource projects

− PythonS60,
WebKitS60...
− Controlled by Nokia
− Mailing lists, CVS, Bug
tracker, Wiki
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Nokia: Maemo
TabletPC: N770/N800

GNOME API's + Debian packaging

Very open development platform

Hired active GNOME hackers

Community tools

− Mailing lists, IRC, Bug tracker, Wiki, Planet
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Nokia
Only Maemo community show solid results

Nokia publicy recognizes the value of its

opennes as opposed to Apple's iPhone.
− And it's totally true.
Is it enough? (Symbian, etc)

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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Innovation and Online Communities
Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Sun
Founded in 1982

“The Network is the Computer”

Computer and software sellers

− SPARC proccessors
− Server and stations
− Solaris operating system
− Java development platform
Facing an increasing Linux competition

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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Sun: Let's become “Linux-like”
1999: StarOffice / OpenOffice.org

2000: GNOME as default Desktop

2005: OpenSolaris

− Open Source code + Community
− June 2007: 60,000 registered users
− Project Indiana: Ian Murdock
2007: OpenJDK

− Open Source version of Java
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Sun's communities
Same tools of open source projects

− Mailing lists
− IRC
− Bug trackers
− CVS/SVN
− Blogs
− Wikis
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Sun's communities
OpenSolaris

− At first, Sun
controlled the
community
− 2006, gave powers to
independent group
OpenSolaris Governing

Board
− “Constitution” in
progress
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Sun: Not enough open?
2005: OpenSPARC.net

− Open Source UltraSPARC specification + community
Blogs for Sun's employees

Jonhatan Swchartz' Blog (Sun's CEO)

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Sun
Sun contributions to open source are

impressive
OpenOffice.org is not a successful open source

project (hard to contribute)
Holds big influence on key open source

projects
Big communities around its company and

projects
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How to Build a Community
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Community HOWTO
Social software (blogs, wikis...) can promote

feedback from inside and from outside the
company
But...

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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Community HOWTO
1. Open yourself

− Internal blogs
− External blogs
Be part of the blogosphere

Read what people are saying about you

− Other tools for B2C communication (bug trackers,
etc)
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Open yourself: Channel9
Microsoft

Web 2.0 developer community

− Video interviews
− Wikis
− Blogs
− Forums
− Screencasts
− ...only for employers.
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Open yourself: Channel 9
Doctrine
«1. Channel 9 is all about the conversation.

Channel 9 should inspire Microsoft and our
customers to talk in an honest and human
voice. Channel 9 is not a marketing tool, not a
PR tool, not a lead generation tool».
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Open yourself: Channel 9
Doctrine
«2. Be a human being. Channel 9 is a place for

us to be ourselves, to share who we are, and
for us to learn who our customers are».
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Open yourself: Channel 9
Doctrine
«3. Learn by listening. When our customers

speak, learn from them. Don't get defensive,
don't argue for the sake of argument. Listen
and take what benefits you to heart».
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Community HOWTO
2. Open your products and services

− Through easy APIs
Mashups

− Open sourcing
Beware: big projects are hard to open source

successfully (OpenOffice, Mozilla)
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

Community HOWTO
3. Use and fund open source projects

− Become part of the community
− Hire open source hackers
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Final Remark
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Telefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

That's all, folks!
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