This is a presentation held at eLiberatica 2009. http://www.eliberatica.ro/2009/ One of the biggest events of its kind in Eastern Europe, eLiberatica brings community leaders from around the world to discuss about the hottest topics in FLOSS movement, demonstrating the advantages of adopting, using and developing Open Source and Free Software solutions. The eLiberatica organizational committee together with our speakers and guests, have graciously allowed media representatives and all attendees to photograph, videotape and otherwise record their sessions, on the condition that the photos, videos and recordings are licensed under the Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 License.

1. True Stories from
Open Source
Danese Cooper
eLiberatica
Bucharest, 23 May 2009

2. What is Open Source?
As defined at www.opensource.org:
Binaries + Source Code distributed together
under an OSD-compliant license
 Freely modifiable
 Freely redistributable
 Freely forkable
 Non-discriminatory = anyone can play
 Non-revokable = code must remain open
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide

3. What is OSI?
A non-profit organization providing
leadership for the Open Source
movement, through…
 Bridge-building
 Leadership
 Spokesmanship
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
Bridge-Building: Most generally, OSI's job is to build bridges between the hacker culture and the mainstream, to educate the people who meet on those bridges, and to assist them in building bonds of practice and trust that can enable
both groups to benefit from sustained cooperation.
Leadership: Inseparable from the job of bridge-building is one of community leadership. To represent our community to the mainstream, we must both hold the trust of our community and be seen to hold that trust. We earn that trust by
being effective wise(wo)men and influence leaders, helping the community find direction and response to challenges as they arise.
Spokesmanship: Our community expects and requires of us that we will not only lead on the tough issues, but that we will use our visibility and credibility to give the open-source community an effective voice in the larger world.
The most obvious mode of bridge-building has been our maintainance of the OSD and certification of open-source licenses. Since we took on this job in 1998, we have developed an enviable reputation as honest brokers between the
corporate world and the hackers, trusted by both sides to maintain the social contract that supports their cooperation to the tune of billions of dollars of money and labor exchanged every year.
We have successfully led the community response to several serious crises, including Microsoft's attempts to discredit the GPL in 2001-2002 and the SCO lawsuit in 2003. We have also done remarkably well in the area of spokesmanship,
establishing OSI as an upright and respectable “good-guy” organization which almost invariably garners favorable media coverage. These are achievements about which all present and former members of OSI can feel justly proud. Very few
advocacy organizations with barely six years of history have ever achieved as much.
However, in considering OSI's mission, it is important that we not confuse tactics with strategy or means with ends. License certification, important as it is, is a means not an end. So is successful PR. These tactics were not the entirety of
OSI's founding mission, nor do they encompass all of our responsibilities today. Very concretely, these tactics would not include projects like the Open Source Awards which are clearly within the scope of OSI's charter objectives.
The discussion of roles and responsibilities in the remainder of this document, therefore, should not be read in light of a narrow set of specific objectives such as license certification or the OSAs. Rather, they should be read as operating
procedures for an organization with a very general mission of bridge-building, leadership, and spokesmanship.

4. Cool, but does anybody
actually USE it?

5. Government Adoption
Bristol, England switches to StarOffice
Kerala, India goes Open Source
Brasil loves Linux!
Malaysian “Master Plan” for Open Source
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

6. RedHat Map
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

7. Its a Small World Afterall
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

8. Happiest Place On Earth
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

9. But is it Sustainable?
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

10. ...or a Ship of Fools?
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

11. Back to Governments...
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

12. Bristol: value for money
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

13. Kerala: total commitment
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

14. Malaysia: persistence
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

15. Brasil: national pride
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

16. So you want to adopt
open source?
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

17. Five Stages of Adoption
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD
1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto
1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project
1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project
1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition
1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project.
- Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined
1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI

18. What is Open Source
Methodology?
 Use an OSI-approved license
 Document every decision / action
 Use simple and available tools
 Reward merit with increased
responsibility
 Work transparently
 Encourage contribution
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide

All decisions are made or at least memorialized on mail lists which are publicly archived and searchable.
-new participants learn the project by researching the archive

Toolset is simple and also open sourced, which removes barriers to participation
-typical tools include CVS, BugZilla, mail lists,

Increased responsibility is a reward for merit
-Commit access is granted only after individual has submitted worthy code to project for some period of time.

All bugs are public
-Security, encryption and other “controversial” issues are vetted in public under belief that peer review yields better code than secrecy.

One codebase
-Barring community from earning commit access indicates lack of trust

19. Is Open Source Anarchy?
 In fact only those with reputation can
commit code
 Massive peer review = more QA staff
than you can hire
 Massive peer review also promotes
higher quality check-ins
 Published roadmaps and acceptance
criteria guide community expectation
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide
 Loose lips donʼt sink ships anymore

20. Open Source Companies
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide

All decisions are made or at least memorialized on mail lists which are publicly archived and searchable.
-new participants learn the project by researching the archive

Toolset is simple and also open sourced, which removes barriers to participation
-typical tools include CVS, BugZilla, mail lists,

Increased responsibility is a reward for merit
-Commit access is granted only after individual has submitted worthy code to project for some period of time.

All bugs are public
-Security, encryption and other “controversial” issues are vetted in public under belief that peer review yields better code than secrecy.

One codebase
-Barring community from earning commit access indicates lack of trust

21. Open Source Companies
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide

All decisions are made or at least memorialized on mail lists which are publicly archived and searchable.
-new participants learn the project by researching the archive

Toolset is simple and also open sourced, which removes barriers to participation
-typical tools include CVS, BugZilla, mail lists,

Increased responsibility is a reward for merit
-Commit access is granted only after individual has submitted worthy code to project for some period of time.

All bugs are public
-Security, encryption and other “controversial” issues are vetted in public under belief that peer review yields better code than secrecy.

One codebase
-Barring community from earning commit access indicates lack of trust

22. Open Source Companies
? ?
?
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide

All decisions are made or at least memorialized on mail lists which are publicly archived and searchable.
-new participants learn the project by researching the archive

Toolset is simple and also open sourced, which removes barriers to participation
-typical tools include CVS, BugZilla, mail lists,

Increased responsibility is a reward for merit
-Commit access is granted only after individual has submitted worthy code to project for some period of time.

All bugs are public
-Security, encryption and other “controversial” issues are vetted in public under belief that peer review yields better code than secrecy.

One codebase
-Barring community from earning commit access indicates lack of trust

23. Open Standards?
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide

All decisions are made or at least memorialized on mail lists which are publicly archived and searchable.
-new participants learn the project by researching the archive

Toolset is simple and also open sourced, which removes barriers to participation
-typical tools include CVS, BugZilla, mail lists,

Increased responsibility is a reward for merit
-Commit access is granted only after individual has submitted worthy code to project for some period of time.

All bugs are public
-Security, encryption and other “controversial” issues are vetted in public under belief that peer review yields better code than secrecy.

One codebase
-Barring community from earning commit access indicates lack of trust

24. Open Standards?
 Not defined
 40 years of baggage
 Way too much wiggle room for
companies
 Standards should be “Open-Source
Implementable”
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide

All decisions are made or at least memorialized on mail lists which are publicly archived and searchable.
-new participants learn the project by researching the archive

Toolset is simple and also open sourced, which removes barriers to participation
-typical tools include CVS, BugZilla, mail lists,

Increased responsibility is a reward for merit
-Commit access is granted only after individual has submitted worthy code to project for some period of time.

All bugs are public
-Security, encryption and other “controversial” issues are vetted in public under belief that peer review yields better code than secrecy.

One codebase
-Barring community from earning commit access indicates lack of trust

25. Summary
 Open Source is a Global Phenomenon
 Open Source is a recognized skill set
 Open Source is increasingly a core
competency for companies,
governments
 Not all “Open” is equivalent
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide

All decisions are made or at least memorialized on mail lists which are publicly archived and searchable.
-new participants learn the project by researching the archive

Toolset is simple and also open sourced, which removes barriers to participation
-typical tools include CVS, BugZilla, mail lists,

Increased responsibility is a reward for merit
-Commit access is granted only after individual has submitted worthy code to project for some period of time.

All bugs are public
-Security, encryption and other “controversial” issues are vetted in public under belief that peer review yields better code than secrecy.

One codebase
-Barring community from earning commit access indicates lack of trust

26. Sources
 Bristol http://www.opensourceacademy.gov.uk/news_and_events/
press_releases/article/bristol-switches-to-staroffice/
 Kerala http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-152441.html
 Malaysia http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4602325.stm
 Data Map http://flowingdata.com/2009/04/30/is-your-country-
involved-in-open-source/
 5 Stages http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10246722-16.html?
part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
 Hungarian Procurement http://www.osor.eu/news/hu-
procurement-continues-to-puzzle-open-source-companies
© 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: danese@opensource.org Slide

27. See you at
www.opensource.org
danese@opensource.org