The code base of the open source technology you want to build your business on is rock solid. Releases are rolling out early and often. The test suite is comprehensive and running regularly. Code is well performing without any glitches. Everything is in place that defines a successful open source project—or isn't it? This talk tries to highlight some of the key business questions when dealing with open source. In addition to coding skills, topics like people management, naming, trademark enforcement, licensing, patents, PR, and more become topics that even the most tech-centric open source products have to deal with. The way these topics are dealt with defines how stable the technology you are looking at today will be in years to come. The Apache Software Foundation has a ton of wisdom in running open source projects targeting long term success. After years of using open source projects, running my own projects, founding meetups and conferences, watching others thrive or fail, I believe that coding skills alone aren't sufficient to turn a "private playground code base" into an open source project that others can rely on. Inspired by 140 characters of truth published here, the talk will focus on what topics that are usually not taught as part of programming courses will cross your way when dealing with open source—either as a user or as a contributor: • People: Is the project willing and able to attract more contributors? Is it able to survive if the leader loses interest or time to continue contributing? How does the project deal with requests coming from the user base? How easy is it for users to get their issues fixed? • Trademarks: Why should you care about trademarks from the beginning? How do you deal with others infringing on your trademarks? • Copyright: Why should you care exactly which license you choose? • PR: While writing release notes is common practice and composing changelogs is pretty easy, the resulting documents are hard to grok for editors and won't get you on the front page of any magazine. Nor will they help you get visibility on common social media systems that might be key in informing your users about recent releases. While being excellent at all topics isn't vital from the start, answers to governance questions decide what a project looks like a few years from its start. This talk will start with a brief overview of the history of The Apache Software Foundation, diving into what the ominous thing called "The Apache Way" means, why the slogan "community over code" is not just a slogan, and why every user of the foundation's projects is invited and treated as a potential future developer of the software they use. We will look at some of the criteria every software engineer should be aware of who has to make a decision on which open source project to use. Speaker Isabel Drost-Fromm, Open Source Strategist, Europace AG

1. Open source is just about the source, isn't it?
“The Apache Way – 19 years of OSS experience in 40 minutes”
Slides licensed under CC-By-NC-SA 4.0

2. Based on a talk I first gave at FrOSCon 2016, Apache Way talks by
Lars Eilebrecht, Justin Ehrenkrantz, Brett Porter, Nick Burch, Rich
Bowen, feedback from Shane Curcuru, input from Bertrand Delacretaz,
Pieter Hintjens, Zaheda Bhorat, corrections from Sally Khudairi,
Mark Thomas, Phil Steitz, Daniel Ruggeri, stuff I read in “Producing
Open Source Software” by Karl Fogel, stuff I read in “Building
successful online communities” by Kraut/ Resnick, stuff I read
in “Social Architecture” by Pieter Hintjens, and numerous conversations
on Apache mailing lists.
And most likely many I forgot to mention above.

3. Isabel Drost-Fromm
Open Source Strategist Europace AG
http://www.europace.de
(Board) Member Apache Software Foundation
http://www.apache.org
Co-founder Apache Mahout
http://mahout.apache.org
Co-founder Berlin Buzzwords
http://www.berlinbuzzwords.de
Co-founder FOSS Backstage
http://www.foss-backstage.de
Image by Thilo Fromm.

4. Image taken shortely before FOSS Backstage Microssumit Berlin @ Europace AG
Batches were printed based on the names ppl used for registration.

5. Mission: Provide software for the public good by providing
services and support for many like-minded software project
communities of individuals who choose to join the ASF.
Funding: Individual donations + corporate sponsorships.
US 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization
Established in 1999.
https://www.apache.org/foundation/

6. Project users
Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.

7. Project users
Yonik’s law of Patches: A half-baked patch in Jira, with no
documentation, no tests and no backwards compatibility is
better than no patch at all.
https://wiki.apache.org/solr/HowToContribute
Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.

8. Project users
Project committers
Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.

9. Project users
Project committers
Project Management Committees
Project Management Committees
Project Management Committees
Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.

10. Project users
Project committers
Project Management Committees
Project Management Committees
Project Management Committees
Apache Software Foundation
Members
Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.

11. Project users
Project committers
Project Management Committees
Project Management Committees
Project Management Committees
Board of Directors
Apache Software Foundation
Members
Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.

12. Project users
Project committers
Project Management Committees
Project Management Committees
Project Management Committees
Board of DirectorsOfficers Comittees
Apache Software Foundation
Members
Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.

13. Image taken at Open Source Summit 2017, Prague; talk by Zaheda Bhorat,
https://osseu17.sched.com/event/ByN2/love-what-you-do-everyday-zaheda-bhorat-aws.

14. Image “Swiss Flag” by crackers93
https://www.flickr.com/photos/crackers93/2832784903 (CC-By-2.0)
https://blogs.apache.org/foundation/entry/success_at_apache_project_independence

15. Image “Copyright, Patent, or Trademark” by BusinessSarah
https://www.flickr.com/photos/businesssarah/5977958263 (CC-By-2.0)

16. Image “Copyright, Patent, or Trademark” by BusinessSarah
https://www.flickr.com/photos/businesssarah/5977958263 (CC-By-2.0)

17. Inspired by https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-recommendations.en.html
Copyleft OSS Non-Copyleft OSS
Small enough so you don't care
Libraries to push standards forward
LGPL for libraries, especially if
there are other similar libraries
AGPL for server software
GPL for everything else
Projects to change established
economics.
I care about any and all of my
downstream users to have all
of “use”, “study”, “share”, “improve”:
All I want to ensure is that my very own project gives
the “use”, “study”, “share”, “improve” freedoms:

18. Inspired by https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-recommendations.en.html
Non-Copyleft OSS
Small enough so you don't care
Libraries to push standards forward
Projects to change established
economics.
All I want to ensure is that my very own project gives
the “use”, “study”, “share”, “improve” freedoms:
Apache License 2.0
https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

19. Image “Copyright, Patent, or Trademark” by BusinessSarah
https://www.flickr.com/photos/businesssarah/5977958263 (CC-By-2.0)

20. Image “Dragon” by Joseph Wu
https://www.flickr.com/photos/josephwuorigami/1367278646 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

21. Image “Copyright, Patent, or Trademark” by BusinessSarah
https://www.flickr.com/photos/businesssarah/5977958263 (CC-By-2.0)

22. Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash

23. Image taken at Berlin Buzzwords.

24. Apache: Community over code.
“A project without people is a dead project (or at least deep asleep).”

25. Project users
Project committers
Project Management Committees
Project Management Committees
Project Management Committees
Board of DirectorsOfficers Comittees
Apache Software Foundation
Members
Image based on graphic by Brett Porter.

27. Image “Newspaper colour” by NS Newsflash https://www.flickr.com/photos/62693815@N03/6277336776 (CC-By 2.0)

29. Mess Media
Thanks to Bertrand Delacretaz for inspiration.

30. Mess Media
Central Hubs
Thanks to Bertrand Delacretaz for inspiration.

31. If it didn’t happen on the mailing list,
it didn’t happen.

32. If it didn’t happen on the mailing list,
it didn’t happen.
user@
dev@
commits@
issues@
private@

33. http://lists.apache.org

34. Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

35. Image “Help Me. VTda.info” by vtdainfo
https://flic.kr/p/7rrxxh (CC-By 2.0)

36. Photo by Thiago Victal on Unsplash

38. Those who do the work take the decisions.
https://www.apache.org/foundation/how-it-works.html#decision-making

39. Apache Ponymail
http://ponymail.apache.org

41. Image “Stopwatch” by Search Engine People Blog
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sepblog/4072462666 (CC-By 2.0)

42. “Reviewing code” (CC-By-NC-SA 2.0)

44. “Thank you card” (CC-By-NC-SA 2.0)
“ThankYou_rush's” (CC-By-SA 2.0)
“merci” (CC-By 2.0)
“Thank You Note” (CC-By-NC-SA 2.0)

45. Contributions include not only source code, but also
documentation, constructive bug reports, constructive
discussions, marketing and generally anything
that adds value to the project.
https://community.apache.org/apache-way/apache-project-maturity-model.html

46. Merit does not go away.
https://www.apache.org/dev/committers.html#committer-set-term

47. Image “Money” (CC-By 2.0) by Tax Credits
https://www.flickr.com/photos/76657755@N04/7027604401

48. Image “Hats” (CC-By-NC
by arbyreed https://flic.kr

49. At Apache you participate as an individual.
https://community.apache.org/projectIndependence.html

50. At Apache you pay with time and love.

51. Image “Doxy cares about my ergonomics” (CC-By-SA 2.0) by Abraham Williams
https://www.flickr.com/photos/4braham/5153162831

52. https://s.apache.org/volunteeritis
https://s.apache.org/youwillburnout
Image “Flying Pigeon bakfiets loaded up for the bike move” by Umberto Brayj
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ubrayj02/6917443031 (CC-By 2.0)

53. At Apache you pay with time and love …
mostly.

54. Machines to host infrastructure.
People to take care of these machines.
Press, Legal, Admin, Travel support, Trademarks.
Image “Server” (CC-By-2.0) by dariorug
https://www.flickr.com/photos/darioruglioni/2613279524

56. You’re not alone.
dev@community.apache.org
members@apache.org
Use ApacheCon, come to Apache
Roadshow, join FOSS Backstage.

57. Image “Fire Hose by Matthew Heun” (CC-By-NC-SA 2.0) by Derrick Story
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thedigitalstory/5106832748/

58. Image “Poison” (CC-By-NC-SA 2.0) by Broken Clouds
https://www.flickr.com/photos/34814824@N00/2805079971

60. https://fosdem.org/2018/schedule/event/community_passing_the_batton_foss_leadership/

61. Image “QR-Code” (CC-By-NC 2.0) by Daniele Devoti
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dadevoti/8024176011/
People
Licensing
Trademarks
Patents
Marketing
Education
Documentation
Design
Event management
Social media
Support
Funding
Motivation
Communication

62. http://foss-backstage.de
Berlin, June 2018
http://www.apachecon.com
Montreal, Sep 2018

63. Join:
dev@your-favourite-project.apache.org
user@your-favourite-project.apache.org

64. http://s.apache.org/e-p

65. Join:
dev@your-favourite-project.apache.org
user@your-favourite-project.apache.org