The document discusses a case study of a Finnish startup company that developed a smartphone operating system called Sailfish OS. The company initiated an open community to aid in the development of the proprietary Sailfish OS. The community provided requirements, testing, and feedback that complemented the company's R&D efforts. The case study examines how the company initiated and managed this hybrid open-proprietary collaboration model to balance openness with protecting its competitive advantages.

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In between open and closed:
Drawing the fine line in hybrid OSS communities
Hanna Mäenpää
hanna.maenpaa@cs.helsinki.fi
Department of Computer Science
University of Helsinki 11.4.2016 1
Tomi Männistö
tomi.mannisto@cs.helsinki.fi
Empirical Software Engineering Group
www.cs.helsinki.fi/group/ese/
Terhi Kilamo
terhi.kilamo@tut.fi
Tampere Technical University

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Motivation – Open innovation
Crowdsourcing allows profit-oriented companies to
outsource tasks to the general public, yielding better
results at less expense than they would otherwise cost.
These opportunities are highlighted at early stages of product
development and when introducing new products to the
marketplace..
For software companies, the OSS communities and adopting
their ways of working are promising - lead users.
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Conflicting motivations –
OSS vs. Commercial
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An apt division of labor, knowledge and decision power is
needed to build trust and reciprocity between the
stakeholders.
This is influenced by how the community is built and
managed: the socio-technical infrastructure it is
supported by and the practices that are employed in its
governance.

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Research has been called for
understanding:
• How relationships in between companies and their
“un-paid employees” can form.1
• Why do companies enter these relationships.5
• What principles, processes9 and forms of control10
take place in their governance.
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Single case study
Descriptive
Exploratory
Mixed methods
Industry context
2 years

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A Post-Nokia
startup (est. 2011)
Smartphone product
• Crowdfunding Jul 2013
• Delivered 24th Dec 2013
• 137 countries
Sailfish OS – a prototype
• 1.0.1.12 Dec 27th 2013
• 1.0.3.8 Jan 31st 2014
• 1.0.4.20 Mar 17th 2014
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Company values
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Unique user experience
Security, transparency,
full control over hardware and data
“We want to
create an
innovation
platform for ideas,
opportunities and
openness.”

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Company values
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Unique user experience
Security, transparency,
full control over hardware and data
“We want to
create an
innovation
platform for ideas,
opportunities and
openness.”

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Hybrid Environment
A mix of open and proprietary

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Sailfish Operating System
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Linux kernel: Hardware specific adaptation

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Sailfish Operating System
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Linux kernel: Hardware specific adaptation
Application platform:
Mobility, sensors
graphics and web
Core OS:
System essentials,
management of software
and personal information, security

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Sailfish Operating System
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Linux kernel: Hardware specific adaptation
Application platform:
Mobility, sensors
graphics and web
Basic applications: Settings, contacts, camera, application store
OS core:
System essentials,
management of software
and personal information, security
Middleware and user interface:
Power management, performance optimizations, multitasking, gestures

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Application platform:
Mobility, sensors
graphics and web
Basic applications: Settings, contacts, camera, application store
OS core:
System essentials,
management of software
and personal information, security
Middleware and user interface:
Power management, performance optimizations, multitasking, gestures
Linux kernel: Hardware specific adaptation
Sailfish Operating System

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Collaboration models
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Collaboration models
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Collaboration models
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Collaboration models
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Research questions
1. How can an open community aid the development of
proprietary software?
2. How can a company initiate such a relationship?
1. How can a company manage the collaboration?

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Research design:
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Company
• Semi-structured interviews
• Face to face, email
Customer community members
• Interview of a moderator
• Surveys on demographics
and motivation of members
Realized activities
• Forum data mining
• Freely available documents

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2013
2014
2015
Motivation survey 1, N=192
Motivation survey 2, N=101
January: QM / RPM
Launch: Registered users, activity
Keyword and interaction analysis
Demographics
Revisiting user profiles and activity
June: QM, moderator
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Company
• Semi-structured interviews
• Face to face, email
Customer community members
• Interview of a moderator
• Surveys on demographics
and motivation of members
Realized activities
• Forum data mining
• Freely available documents
March: RPM
Research design:
Revisiting, revisiting, revisiting

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Intermediary results

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Creative, self-organizing and autonomous.

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Clear purpose

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Activeness of the community
“The first evening we had hundreds of people
logged in and contributing”

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Ideas, questions, defect reports
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The extent of the testing
activities could not have
been achieved without
the help of the customers.

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Motivation – 2014 6mo
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Motivation
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Motivation - open
“I believe in an open community that is
intrinsically motivated to work together
for the benefit of all.”
“I love the idea to exit from iOS, Windows and especially Android
world: with Sailfish we’re talking about real open source,
freedom and the
close contact between us users and the company
giving us the possibility to do something new, unlike and
interesting.”

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Finally:
Lessons learned

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RQ1:
How can an open community aid the
development of proprietary software?
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Create
Process
Refine
Amend
Evaluate

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RQ1:
How can an open community aid the
development of proprietary software?
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Complementing R&D
• Requirements engineering
• Post release testing
• Release planning
• Feasibility of ideas
Allowing continuous experimentation
• Strategy – company values
Customer support
Create
Process
Refine
Amend
Evaluate

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RQ2: How can a company initiate such a
relationship?
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Purpose
People
Platform

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RQ2: How can a company initiate such a
relationship?
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Purpose
People
Platform
1. Commitment to a product
1. Exclusivity
2. Matching values
1. Low barrier of communication
with top executives
• Man on the inside

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RQ3: How can a company manage the
collaboration?

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RQ3: How can a company manage the
collaboration?

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RQ3: How can a company manage the
collaboration?
Post-release
No promises
No opinions
Postum notifications
Release notes

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RQ3: How can a company manage the
collaboration?
Post-release
No promises
No opinions
Postum notifications
Release notes

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RQ3: How can a company manage the
collaboration?
“Early” opt-in
Post-release
No promises
No opinions
Postum notifications
Release notes

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RQ3: How can a company manage the
collaboration?
No promises
No opinions
Postum notifications
Release notes
“Early” opt-in
Post-release

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RQ3: How can a company manage the
collaboration?
C-beta
“Early” opt-in
Post-release
No promises
No opinions
Postum notifications
Release notes

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RQ3: How can a company manage the
collaboration?
C-beta
“Early” opt-in
Post-release
Knowledge
Access
Decision
making
power

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Knowledge
Access
Decision
making
power
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RQ3: How can a company manage the
collaboration?
C-beta
“Early” opt-in
Post-release

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To conclude
The challenges lie in creating and sustaining
a balance between the
open and the proprietary,
public and private,
autonomy and governed.
While overt openness may risk the competitive advantage of a company, leaving too
much behind closed boundaries can create unnecessary friction in between the
company and its open community.

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Limitations
Learnings are directional to
similar market introductions
where a new product relies
on OSS software and a
large up front investment
has already been made by
the customer.

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Limitations
Transferability
1. Single case
2. Descriptive
3. History of the software and the people
Validity of the research design
1. Methodologically fragmented
2. Data sampling representative of only the
most active contributors, not the whole
customer population
Internal validity
1. Researcher bias – at time a solo effort
Learnings are directional to
similar market introductions
where a new product relies
on OSS software and a
large up front investment
has already been made by
the customer.
30%

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Questions?

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Thank you
Hanna Mäenpää
hanna.maenpaa@cs.helsinki.fi
“Leaving the requirements open:
Case studies in Hybrid OSS environments”
http://tinyurl.com/hannas-dissertation