Collaborative development is at the core of successful open source projects. Yet to be successful in today's competitive open source world, it is increasingly important to master many different disciplines and to develop an edge. In this talk we will cover a wide range of topics relevant to developers and members of open source communities who want to increase participation in their projects. Topics range from growing your developer base (e.g. by participation in GSoC, OPW and similar programs), rewarding participation, projecting momentum in the media and press, coercing large companies into contributing more and in different ways to your project, running community initiatives successfully and measuring success. We will use real-life examples and share tools and mental models (e.g. open source flywheel and funnels) that help you make the right decisions for your project.

1. Lars Kurth
Community Manger, Xen Project
Chairman, Xen Project Advisory Board
Director, Open Source Business Office, Citrix lars_kurth

2. Was a contributor to various projects
Worked in parallel computing, tools,
mobile and now virtualization
Community guy at Symbian Foundation
Learned how NOT to do stuff
Community guy for the Xen Project
Working for Citrix
Member of OSS Business Office
Accountable to Xen Project Advisory Board
Chairman of Xen Project Advisory Board

3. Source: The 2014 Future of Open Source Survey Result

4. The # of Projects is growing rapidly
2007: 0.2M projects
Today: 1.0M projects,
100Billion LOC,
10M contributors
2015: 1.8M projects
John Morgan @ Flickr
Simon & His Camera @ Flickr
Kumar Appaiah @ Flickr

5. 50% of all enterprises adopt OSS
software
Julian Manson @ Flickr

6. 30% of companies make it easy for
employees to contribute to projects
Influencing a project’s direction is one
of the main reason for contributing
Nick @ Flickr
toffehoff @ Flickr

7. Open Source Flywheel

9. [1] bit.do/optionvalue

14. 2001: Open Sourced by IBM
2001 – 2003: Growth from 8 to 80
consortia members
2006: Callisto
10 projects, 260 committers
2004: Eclipse Foundation
2011: 10th Birthday
More projects/products/users,
improved process, improved
option value/modularity, …
273 projects, 1057 committers,
50+ MLOC, 174 members
(see bit.do/Eclipse-10)
…

15. Tragedy of the Commons
(sort of)
Moyan Brenn @ Flickr

16. snoopsmouse @ Flickr

17. Catastrophic is the right word
[for Heartbleed]. On the scale
of 1 to 10, this is an 11.
Bruce Schneier
Internationally renowned security Technologist
@Bruce_Schneier

19. Source: Ohloh.net
Growing Codebase
Static and small contributor base
1 person maintaining 100 KLoC =
Underinvestment
Extremely large user base
Critical infrastructure component
Thus impact of Heartbleed is huge

22. snoopsmouse @ Flickr

23. Features
How many users you have
How many vendors back you
How you are seen in the press
…

24. can help you succeed

25. Neutrality / Perception
Support Infrastructure
Expertise / Mentoring
Vendor Network
…
BUT: You still need to do
all the right things

27. Create a balanced Flywheel
OSS Foundations can help
Master different skills
Vinovyn @ Flickr

28. Follow Industry News
Follow Project News
Trial Software
Adopt Software
Engage with Users
Engage with Industry
Evangelize
Customize
Contribute
Lead
Problem
Activities
Metrics

29. Problem
Community is expanding fast
Companies can’t find staff
Potential of slowing growth
Potential of loosing new vendors
Poaching
Friction
Tim J Keegan @ Flickr

30. Training:
Expensive to create
Does not normally scale
(unless your project is huge)
bit.do/grow-devs
You don’t need training…
Good and active dev wiki
In code API docs
Recorded developer talks
Extensive commit messages
Design discussions on the list
(linked to in commit message)
Willingness to help newcomers
(mentors)
...

31. Orgs need to apply
(we did not always get in)
Students only, summer only
Orgs and companies can sponsor
slots
Interns, summer and winter
Good mentors = word of mouth
Committed mentors (who can spend a few hours a week)
Suitable projects
Not so much about the code = it’s an investment in people
Metrics
Approx. 40% still engaged after 3 years
Repeat mentors, more people willing to mentor

32. Problem
30% Community Growth p.a.
Contributors competing for review
time from stretched maintainer /
reviewer base
Average review time up from 28 to
32 days in 6 months

33. Short term fixes
(documentation/guidance : set expectations)
(better co-ordination for amongst reviewers)
(focus more on designs to save time)
Grow reviewer base by identifying capable candidates in the community
(support + encourage + reward : bit.do/let-them-be-your-heroes)
Mentor candidates to get them effective more quickly than normal
(copy the GSoC / OPW pattern)
Get backing from vendors to ensure candidates stay engaged in community
(if vendor employee)
(existing community members don’t want to waste their time on someone
who will dissappear)

34. Problem
Activities
Metrics

35. Activities
Metrics
Problem

36. Industry
Media
Media Coverage
Social Media Impact

37. Users
Industry
Media
User & Web Metrics
Features / Releases

38. Community Metrics
bit.do/oss-metrics
bit.do/oss-commercial-dashboards
Contributors
Users
Industry
Media

39. Are you helping
your employer
by contributing to
the project?
Contributors
Employer
Users
Industry
Media

40. Are you spending
your funds wisely?
bit.do/community-plan
Contributors
Employer
Board
Users
Industry
Media

41. Open Source Strategy /
Community Plan
bit.do/sample_community_plan

42. bit.do/xenproject-sample-report-1
bit.do/xenproject-sample-report-2

43. Open Source Flywheel
revisited
The boundary between
Business and Communities

46. Create a balanced Flywheel
OSS Foundations can help
Master many different skills
Vinovyn @ Flickr
Get Companies to help you

48. Undefined Responsibilities
cause problems
Moyan Brenn @ Flickr

49. Xen Project Advisory Board trying
to push a preferred test harness
over community solution
Paralysis: no new test code
written
Delay of roll-out of independently
hosted Test Farm
Risk of Test Farm not being
adopted
• Working group jointly led by community and Advisory Board
• Group resolved the issue

50. Vendor trying to use private
channels to Citrix Xen Project
maintainers to get an edge
Committers needed the vendor
help to progress their goals
Vendor trying to get more and
more
Potential of lack of trust in our
Xen Project maintainers
• A rather difficult conversation
• Vendor starting to follow community practices and additionally donating
(non-developer) resources to the project

52. Tedious and Business
Unfriendly Rules
Moyan Brenn @ Flickr

53. Vendors wants to promote
project at events (swag, booth,
collateral, …)
Tedious approval process
for every single instance
• PMC approval
• VP of Trademark approval
(bottleneck)
Frustrated vendors
Frustrated community
• Simplify process for common situations
• Proposal at bit.do/PMC-TM-management

55. Companies Community
Advisory Board WGs Project Governance
• PR / AR / Marketing /
Messaging
• Membership Rules /
Trademarks / Legal
• Provide funds to solve
“Common Good” problems
• Referee of last resort
• Principles (aka Values)
• Roles
• Decision Making
• Project Lifecycle
• Community Initiatives, Best
Practices, …
PR WG
Test WG
TCT

57. Clear Rules and Responsibilities
Remove tension
Create trust
Works best when aligned with Flywheel
Business friendly Rules
Simple and Easy
Enables businesses to help the community
Effect: Community sees value in company
participation
Vinovyn @ Flickr

58. Vinovyn @ Flickr

59. Maria Ly @ Flickr

61. Tchami @ Flickr

64. Please rate the talk
www.slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr/