The document discusses collaborative leadership and governance in open source projects, emphasizing the importance of diversity, inclusion, and community participation. It highlights the roles of foundations and companies in driving project ownership and collaboration while outlining governance processes, security protocols, and the evolution of such governance. Resources for further guidance on these topics are also provided.

1. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Collaborative Leadership:
Governance Beyond
Company Affiliation
FOSS Backstage February 2021
Dr. Dawn M. Foster
Director of OSS Community Strategy
fosterd@vmware.com fastwonderblog.com
Open Source at VMware @vmwopensource
blogs.vmware.com/opensource

2. @geekygirldawn
©2020 VMware, Inc.
Project Ownership: Foundations and Companies
Governance is About the People
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Leadership
Resources
Final Thoughts
2
Agenda
Photo by Marco Verch - CC BY 2.0

3. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn 3
whoami
• Geek, traveler, reader
• 20+ yr tech career focused on
community & open source
(Intel, Puppet, Scale Factory, …)
• OpenUK Board, CHAOSS Board and
Maintainer, TODO Group Steering
• Kubernetes contributor & CNCF
Contributor Strategy SIG
• PhD from the University of Greenwich
focus on Linux kernel collaboration
Photos by Mom, Josh Bancroft, Don Park

4. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Project Ownership
Photo by K-nekoTR - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

5. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Leadership,
trademarks,
and projects
5
Determining
Neutrality for
Foundations?
Image by Andreas Komodromos CC BY-NC 2.0

6. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Lower risk:
participate as equals
6
Neutral Foundations

7. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Higher risk:
single company
in control
7
Company
Originated
Photo by Jan Fidler - CC BY 2.0

8. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Give up control for
increased collaboration
8
Contributing
to Foundations

9. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Image by the CNCF CC BY-NC 2.0
Governance
Materials from the CNCF Contributor Strategy SIG, Governance WG
provided some of the content for this section
Image by the CNCF CC BY-NC 2.0

10. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Processes for how
people collaborate
and make decisions
10
Governance is
about People
Photo by Allen and Allen - CC BY 2.0

11. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Licensing, code of conduct,
contribution, and
communication process
11
Minimum
Documentation
Photo by Jenni C - CC BY 2.0

12. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Process for
reporting and
responding to
security issues
12
Security
Image by darwin Bell CC BY-NC 2.0

13. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Opportunity
and
responsibility
13
Leadership
Image by the CNCF CC BY-NC 2.0
https://github.com/cncf/sig-contributor-strategy/tree/master/governance

14. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Code of conduct,
leadership,
and community
14
Diversity,
Equity, and
Inclusion
Photo by David Jakes - CC BY 2.0
https://chaoss.community/metrics

15. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Never “done”
can always
be improved
15
Governance
Evolves
Image by kuhnmi CC BY 2.0

16. @geekygirldawn
©2020 VMware, Inc. 16
Resources
Linux Foundation’s TODO Group
https://todogroup.org/guides/
CNCF Contributor Strategy SIG
https://github.com/cncf/sig-contributor-strategy
The Open Source Way Guidebook
https://github.com/theopensourceway/guidebook/
Photo by Vicente - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

17. ©2020 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Setting expectations
reduces uncertainty
and makes people
feel welcome
17
Final Thoughts
on Governance
Image by the CNCF CC BY-NC 2.0

18. @geekygirldawn
©2020 VMware, Inc.
Dr. Dawn M. Foster
fosterd@vmware.com
fastwonderblog.com
Open Source at VMware
blogs.vmware.com/opensource
@vmwopensource
18
Thank You!
Photo by Thangaraj Kumaravel - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0