XWiki SAS is an open-source company founded in 2003, focusing on developing an extensible enterprise wiki. The company operates under a meritocratic model and collaborates closely with its contributors, with significant revenue going back into open-source development. It faces challenges related to brand ambiguity and the need for a legal foundation to manage its trademark and donations.

1. 27 au 29 mars 2013
XWiki SAS
an open source company
Vincent Massol
XWiki Committer
CTO XWiki SAS
!
@vmassol
Vincent Massol, March 2014

2. XWiki SAS - Quick Timeline
• 2003: Ludovic Dubost created the XWiki open source project, an
Extensible enterprise wiki
• 2004: Creation of XPertNet by Ludovic, office in Paris
• 2005: First employee & first customer
• 2007: XWiki Romania creation
• 2008: Ethical Open Source commitment through Manifesto
• 2008:All employees become shareholders
• 2014: XWiki Algeria creation

3. XWiki SAS - The team!
July 2013 Seminar

4. XWiki SAS: A Distributed Company
1
13
1
1
1 4
1
161
1• GSOC: Romania
• Open source hires (e.g. USA)
• Past: Russia + Sri Lanka
• Buyout:Algeria

5. Team Organization
Product Dev
(6)
Sales &
Marketing
(4)
Product
Marketing
(3)
Research
(3)
Platform
(2)
HR
(2)
Support
(3)
Client
Projects
(15)
XWiki
SAS

6. What type of company is XWiki SAS?
• A software publisher?
• No license revenue since it’s all LGPL and free
• Majority of developers are working on client projects
• A Service Company?
• Yes but it also spends a large part of its revenues (about 30%)
sponsoring the development of the XWiki open source product

7. Open source Business model
Downloads/year
New active installs/year
(sticking users)
New clients or projects/year
(viral marketing, clients calling in)
250K
2500
25
10% of installs
1% of active installs
+ 90% renewal of existing customers
New installs/year 25000 10% of downloads
Sep. 2013 - Feb 2014

8. What does XWiki SAS sell?
2012

9. Revenues - Sales + subsidies
Source: Mid 2013

10. Open source project management
• Independent from XWiki SAS, defines its own rules
• Meritocracy, similar rules as ASF (Apache Software Foundation)
• VETO (-1) on mailing list to remain honest!
• Only individuals at open source level (no company), everyone at the
same level
• Consensus-based approach (no hierarchical decisions)

11. Active Committers & Contributors
• XWiki SAS: 38
• Core Committers: 19
• Contributors: 60
• Contributors but not
Core Committers: 41
• 60% of Core
Committers are from
XWiki SAS
XWiki SAS Open source contributors
Core
Committers
5 21 12 7 20

12. Roadmap Process
Product
Dev
Sales &
Marketing
Product
Marketing
Research
Platform
Support
Client
Projects
Roadmap Team
XWiki SAS (Company) Open Source Project (Individuals)
Developer 1
Developer 2
Developer 3
Developer 4
Developer 1
Developer 2
Developer 3
Developer 4
Developer 5
Developer 6
Developer 7
Developer 8

13. Challenges
• Ambiguity between “XWiki” (the open source project) and “XWiki” (the
company, which we call “XWiki SAS”)
• Need an official legal foundation to hold the “XWiki” trademark and allow
donations.
• Could make it easier for outsiders to invest in the XWiki project
• Open source is about Give-Give
• Works if businesses play the game
• Problem of SSII in France for example who take but don’t give much in
general
• Attract even more contributors/committers and businesses sponsoring the
development of XWiki

14. Q&A
Me

15. Vincent Massol
• Speaker Bio
• CTO XWiki SAS
• Your Projects
• XWiki (community-driven open source project)
• Past: Maven,Apache Cargo,Apache Cactus, Pattern Testing
• Other Credentials:
• LesCastCodeurs podcast
• Creator of OSSGTP open source group in Paris
• 3 books: JUnit in Action, Maven:A Developer’s Notebook, BBWM