Although essential to the survival of open source, it remains a challenge for many developers to get the companies they work for to provide paid support. At the moment, businesses around the world aren’t doing enough in this area, and they are certainly missing out in terms of innovation in the long term.

1. Of horses, water, and
getting them to drink
Getting your open
source company
to contribution

2. Chris Jansen
Developer, Deeson
@legolasbo
chrisj@deeson.co.uk
Developer 5+ years
Open source enthusiast
Drupal (core) contributor

3. Jeffrey ‘jam’ McGuire
Evangelist, DevRel, Acquia
@horncologne
jam@acquia.com
dev.acquia.com/podcast
Open Source Evangelist,
longstanding passion for Drupal
project / community
Advisor @openstrategypartners.com

4. Outline. Introduction
Benefits of using open source
Why contribute?
Identifying roadblocks
Removing roadblocks
Now go contribute!
Recap
Q&A

5. “Nobody made a greater mistake
than he they who did nothing
because he they could do only a
little.”
Edmund Burke, 1729-1797

8. • Office of the CTO (OCTO)
• 10 full-time Drupal Core & ecosystem
contributors
• Drupal 8 Module Acceleration Program
• $500K USD investing in module upgrades
• Major sponsor of events, code sprints, &c.
• Acquia Labs: “Drupal beyond the browser”
• Drupal security team members, module
maintainers, community organizers … !
Contributes

9. The developer’s
perspective
So what’s the
problem?

10. Map the
problem.

11. Identify negative
catalysts.

12. Identify possible
solutions.

13. Benefits of using
open source
software
The business
perspective

14. License fee of zero
Lower development costs
Faster time to market
Improved ROI
Reduced vendor lock-in
…
The
obvious
stuff.

15. IT costs
Personnel
Hosting
Infrastructure
Bandwidth
SLA Support
Design
Proprietary. Open Source.
IT costs
Personnel
Hosting
Infrastructure
Bandwidth
SLA Support
Design

16. Features: Vendor roadmap
Features: Vendor release cycle
Vendor lock-in
Buy back your data
Proprietary. Open Source.
Features: What you need
Features: When you need it
Features: Cutting edge
1000s of vendors
You own your data

17. License fees
One time / Annual / Recurring €€€
Pay for permission to try
Proprietary. Open Source.
License fees
€ 0.00
Invest in features, training, staff …
Cheap, (almost) risk-free POCs
Build better, not cheaper.

18. Build better, not cheaper.
Budget == 100 Proprietary Open Source Reallocation
License fees 30 0 -30
Infrastructure, etc. 15 15 0
Strategy, Design, UX 25 35 +10
Features 20 30 +10
Implementation, QA 10 20 +10

19. Contribute?
Of course!
Seems obvious …

20. Seems
obvious…
Because we
are optimists
& idealists
“Because it’s the right thing to do!”
“Push community, that’s why you
are here”
“We should give back was always
our mentality”
“My future took a completely
different turn based on the fact that
we contributed to open source.”

21. Identifying
contribution
roadblocks

22. Strategic
Roadblocks
Not knowing
the why
1.

23. Simon Sinek
TEDx 2009
How Great Leaders Inspire Action
Book
Start With Why
https://goo.gl/S8KNUx

24. Identified roadblocks
1. Unclear mandate/policy (“The Why”)
2. Lack of knowledge (“The How”)
3. Doubts about own skills
4. Lack of time
5. Lack of procedure (“The What”)
Operational
Roadblocks
Identified
roadblocks
2.

25. Real problems in
a medium sized
operation.
25+
employees

26. Removing Strategic
Contribution Roadblocks

27. The boss talk.
community contribution doesn't happen
without promotion in the community
(sessions, blog posts, webinars, etc.)
Long term, systematic thinking, v "quick
wins" ... I want to prioritise long term,
profitable systems over short term,
profitable billing codes.

28. Management:
Discuss contribution
Get consensus
Define contribution policy/mandate
Developers:
When in doubt, ask for clear policy/
mandate
Define /
Change Policy

29. Let’s unblock those
developers!
That sounds
convincing!
!?

30. Removing Operational
Contribution Roadblocks

31. Let’s
solve this
problem

32. Increase
proficiency
trough training
and guidance
1.

33. So we’ve
reduced the
knowledge
problem…
Now what?
2.

34. Proficiency
+
mandate
=
Confident
contribution
But … we’re
not there yet
3.

35. Integrating dev
workflow with open
source

36. Development flow.
Analyse Develop
Peer
review
Publish

37. Share your work.
Company OS Project
Share
Share
Analyse Develop
Peer
review
Publish
Analyse Develop
Peer
review
Publish

38. Use the work of others.
Use
Share
Analyse Develop
Peer
review
Publish
Analyse Develop
Peer
review
Publish
Company OS Project

39. Improve the work of others.
Company OS Project
Share
Share
Use
Analyse Develop
Peer
review
Publish
Analyse Develop
Peer
review
Publish

40. Result:
Contribution is
how you work.
4.

41. So what do we contribute!?
So what
can we do?
!?

42. There must be
50 ways …

43. Code
Reviews
Documentation
Sponsorship
Organise
Design
Evangelise
And more!
7+

44. Introduction
Benefits of using open source
Why contribute?
Identifying roadblocks
Removing roadblocks
Now go contribute!
Recap
Q&A
Recap.

45. Thank you!

46. Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire Chris Jansen
@legolasbo
chrisj@deeson.co.uk
@horncologne
jam@acquia.com
dev.acquia.com/podcast