Talk Title Here
Author Name, Company
Open Innovation: what
companies can learn from Open
Source communities
Alessio Fattorini, Nethesis - NethServer

@ale_fattorini

OPEN INNOVATION
ALESSIO FATTORINI
▸ Work at Nethesis (Italy)
▸ Community Evangelist / Leader /
Junkie
▸ Build Welcoming Communities
▸ Connect People and work with
Open Source
▸ Prosecco Evangelist

#neth17
NETHESIS
2003

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
SYSTEM INTEGRATORS
▸ Clear business model
▸ We added value
▸ Gave back to the upstream
projects
▸ Times were different then

2010

OPEN INNOVATION
OUR OWN OPEN SOURCE PROJECT
▸ Espresso and pastry
▸ From scratch
▸ On top of CentOS
▸ Assuming that we had:
experience, know-how,
workforce

WE FELT SO BRAVE

WE FELT SO BRAVE
AND FOOL

OPEN INNOVATION
MAKING SYSADMIN’S LIFE EASIER
▸ Free to Download
▸ Openly developed
▸ Community-driven

WHY A COMMUNITY?

OPEN INNOVATION
DEVELOPING IT BY OURSELVES
▸ We would have been more
effective
▸ Faster decision process
▸ Like any other company
▸ But deeply into the Open
Source culture

TO GO FAST, GO ALONE.
TO GO FAR, GO TOGETHER.
African Proverb
OPEN INNOVATION

OPEN INNOVATION
HOW CAN WE BUILD A COMMUNITY?
▸ Never built one
▸ Good at code not with people
▸ We were a company

HOW TO BUILD A GOOD RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND THE
COMMUNITY ITSELF?

GOLDEN RULE OF
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT

THERE IS
NO GOLDEN RULE

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
WE LEARNED MANY THINGS ALONG THE WAY
▸ Sharing with you what we have
found
▸ Be useful
▸ Avoid you some mistakes and
failures

YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW
THE OPEN SOURCE RULES
IF YOU WANNA PLAY THE
OPEN SOURCE GAME

START TO WORK OUT
IN THE OPEN
CONVERT IN AN OPEN
COMPANY

GIVE TAKE

GIVE

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
COMPANY HAS TO GIVE FIRST
▸ Build trust
▸ Code is not enough
▸ You have to invest in people

PEOPLE OVER THE CODE
PUT PEOPLE FIRST

OPEN INNOVATION
NOT AN EFFICIENT SHORT-TERM STRATEGY
▸ Even if you get some quick
returns
▸ Long journey and it takes time
▸ Can take months/years
▸ It pays off

OPEN INNOVATION
IT’S NOT A MARKETING CHANNEL
▸ Entire different animal
▸ No direct sales
▸ Company -> Audience
▸ Member <-> Member

BETWEEN THE
COMMUNITY / COMPANY
CLARIFY THE RELATIONSHIP

OPEN INNOVATION
BETWEEN THE COMMUNITY / COMPANY
▸ Why the org has decided to
build a community?
▸ What it hopes to gain?
▸ What community will gain?
▸ Understand community needs
▸ No spaces for grey areas

OPEN INNOVATION
NETHESIS AND NETHSERVER COMMUNITY
▸ Community effort founded/
supported by Nethesis
▸ Nethesis business model
▸ Revenue used to fund the
development, sites, community
▸ Same target: making NethServer
better and successful

BECAUSE THE COMPANY WORKS
OUT IN THE OPEN AND AS PART OF
THE COMMUNITY

EVERYBODY WINS

@ale_fattorini
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COMMUNITY
COMMUNITY MANAGERS AREN’T SOLELY

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
HIRE A COMMUNITY MANAGER
▸ In charge of good
communication between those
entities
▸ Essential in the early stages
▸ Voice of the company/community
▸ Have to participate at a level that
can appear disloyal

IN YOUR COMMUNITY?
HOW TO SPEND YOUR TIME

OPEN INNOVATION
BE WELCOMING
▸ First experience is critical
▸ Feel acknowledged
▸ Know what to do first
▸ First post -> prompt response

IT DOESN’T MATTER
HOW FUN AND AMAZING
YOUR PROJECT IS. IF
PEOPLE DON’T FEEL
SAFE THEY WONT’
CONTRIBUTE.

OPEN INNOVATION
BE INCLUSIVE
▸ Create an environment where
people feel safe
▸ Be humble - don’t patronize
▸ Create some rules and lead by
example

@ale_fattorini

Thank you Toolset

OPEN INNOVATION
LISTEN TO YOUR COMMUNITY
▸ You will tempted to steer the
discussion too much
▸ Be open-minded and be ready
to change your mind
▸ Be ready to discuss and ask
people to do the same

WHEN WE’RE CLOSE TO IDEAS, WE HEAR
CRITICISM. WHEN WE’RE OPEN TO
CRITICISM WHAT WE GET IS ADVICE.
Simon Sinek
OPEN INNOVATION, WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES

OPEN INNOVATION
BE OPEN AND TRANSPARENT
▸ Introducing open innovation is
a huge cultural shift
▸ You will tempted to keep your
discussions private. Tell your
people to stop doing that.
▸ Contributors can’t actually
understand what’s going on

OPEN INNOVATION
TRY TO WORK OUT LOUD
▸ Share what are you working on
▸ Keep people updated on your
last achievements
▸ Ask your member to do the
same

IN THE DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS
KEEP THE PEOPLE INVOLVED

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
CONCRETE WAY TO PRACTICE OPENESS
▸ Some common advice: bugs,
features, roadmap completely
public, pull request NOT
ENOUGH
▸ A lot of development happens in
code repositories and bug
trackers.
▸ Not places where users hang out

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
NO SEPARATED PLACES
▸ Don’t underestimate what
people can see in some
discussions
▸ Give their feedback and say
thank you to the devs
▸ If you separate you can’t have
this kind of contribution

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
LEAD THE SUPPORT
‣ Take over the support requests
‣ Answering all the support
questions it’s still not enough
‣ Can’t always be the only one
who helps
‣ Train your community to
answer instead

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
TRAIN YOUR COMMUNITY TO SUPPORT
‣ Call upon specific people to
help other specific people
‣ Three outcomes:
‣ More inclined to participate
‣ Feel like experts
‣ Help newcomers, be thanked

TAKE

BUILDING AN OPEN
SOURCE COMMUNITY
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF

THE BEST WAY TO HAVE A GOOD IDEA IS
TO HAVE A LOT OF IDEAS
INNOVATION

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
INNOVATION
▸ Having different points of view
on your product is essential
▸ How many disrupting ideas can
a company create?
▸ Ability to invite the entire world
to continuously improve the
product

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
COMMUNITY = IDEAS FACTORY
▸ Really leverage the power of
the collective
▸ 90% of all community feedback
is crap, this means 10% is gold!
(J. Atwood)

REFINE THAT RAW MATERIALS
INTRO PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENTS
WISDOM WILL COME FROM YOUR CONTRIBUTORS

DEVELOPMENT
THE IVORY TOWER

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
THE IVORY TOWER DEVELOPMENT
‣ It’s dangerous to create an
environment where developers
have no idea who the users are
‣ Developers assume everyone
else is a developer
‣ A community brings developers
back to the reality and helps to
stay grounded.

OPEN INNOVATION
FROM THE OUTSIDE
▸ Enable the product/company
to look at itself from the
outside
▸ Catch your strengths and
weaknesses

NETHSERVER IS AN OPERATING SYSTEM
FOR LINUX ENTHUSIASTS, DESIGNED FOR
SMALL OFFICES AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE

NETHSERVER IS AN OPERATING SYSTEM
FOR LINUX ENTHUSIASTS, DESIGNED FOR
SMALL OFFICES AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE

NETHSERVER IS AN OPERATING SYSTEM
FOR LINUX ENTHUSIASTS, DESIGNED FOR
SMALL OFFICES AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE

OPEN INNOVATION
▸ Feedback
OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS

OPEN INNOVATION
▸ Feedback
▸ Comparisons
OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS

OPEN INNOVATION
▸ Feedback
▸ Comparisons
▸ Testing and bugs
OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS

OPEN INNOVATION
▸ Feedback
▸ Comparisons
▸ Testing and bugs
▸ Content
OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS

OPEN INNOVATION
▸ Feedback
▸ Comparisons
▸ Testing and bugs
▸ Content
▸ Support
OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS

OPEN INNOVATION
OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS
▸ Feedback
▸ Comparisons
▸ Testing and bugs
▸ Content
▸ Support
▸ Development

OPEN INNOVATION
OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS
▸ Feedback
▸ Comparisons
▸ Testing and bugs
▸ Content
▸ Support
▸ Development
▸ Translations

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
ENABLE THE COMPANY TO GO GLOBAL
‣ We’re Italian: our wine and food
‣ Community gets the company
ready to go global
‣ Forced us to study English
‣ Speak in public without being
fooled by the audience
‣ First NethServer Conference

OPEN INNOVATION
▸ Holy grail of marketers: word
of mouth marketing
▸ Tribal Marketing
▸ Message that go sideways from
member to member
▸ Street team
SPREAD THE WORD

LOYALTY
IN COMMUNITY YOU’RE BUILDING CONNECTIONS
WITH PEOPLE WHICH IS WAY MORE POWERFUL
THAN FEATURES

IT’S MUCH MORE HARDER TO LEAVE A
GROUP YOU’RE CONNECTED TO THAN
FACELESS PRODUCT/COMPANY
Evan Hamilton
OPEN INNOVATION, WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES

TAKEAWAYS

DEFINITELY TAKES SOME
TIME AND RESOURCES
SUPPORTING YOUR MEMBERS
AND LEADING THE DISCUSSIONS

WHEN THEY LOOK AT IT AS A TACTIC
COMPANIES FAIL AT COMMUNITY

A CORE PART OF THE BUSINESS
PHILOSOPHY
INSTEAD OF MAKING IT

OPEN INNOVATION
COMMUNITY IS NOT
▸ Marketing
▸ An efficient short-term strategy

WE COULD NEVER HAVE ACHIEVED THOSE
RESULTS WITHOUT OUR COMMUNITY
WE EXPERIENCE THAT EVERY SINGLE DAY

WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
IT CAN DO SO MUCH MORE
▸ Completely set your business apart
from every company in the field
▸ Redefine markets
▸ Inspire milions of people
▸ Give them a sense of belonging
▸ Make them feel an incredible bond

WILL ALWAYS WIN
COMMUNITY-DRIVEN COMPANIES

THANK YOU
@ale_fattorini
alessiofattorini
nethserver.org
nethesis.it