Many research and innovation projects adopt an open source approach from the implicit understanding that making the code of unfinished components freely available keeps open the opportunity for third-party stakeholders and contributors will finally complete the software. This is a possibility on the paper. But is not how open source actually works. This is not how open source communities grow nor how open source software becomes successful. In this presentation we hold that one of the key differences between a success open source project and a failed one is that the successful project implement flawless open source project governance.

1. Open Source Software:
Governance Makes the Difference
Cédric Thomas, OW2
NetFutures, March 25, 2015, Brussels
Open Source Workshop

2. Mar 19, 2015 2Cedric Thomas
Agenda Context
Proactive OSS Strategy
Governance
Community Governance
Governance in Action
Summary

3. Mar 19, 2015 3Cedric Thomas
OSS Defined
OSS is a stretegic driver
Today's innovation is collaborative
Context

4. 4
0> The freedom to run the software
for any purpose

5. 5
0> The freedom to run the software
for any purpose
1> The freedom to study how the
software works and to adapt it to
your needs

6. 6
0> The freedom to run the software
for any purpose
1> The freedom to study how the
software works and to adapt it to
your needs
2> The freedom to redistribute
copies of the software

7. 7
0> The freedom to run the software
for any purpose
1> The freedom to study how the
software works and to adapt it to
your needs
2> The freedom to redistribute
copies of the software
3> The freedom to improve the
software and distribute your
improvements to the public

8. 8

9. 9

10. 10Cedric Thomas

11. 11Cedric Thomas
Private,
Integrated
platform
Business powered
by open source

12. 12Cedric Thomas
Private,
Integrated
platform
Open Source
Commons
Business powered
by open source
Ecosystem-based
innovation
Android
Chrome
Bootstrap
Kafka
Open Compute
Future
Internet
hadoop

13. 13Cedric Thomas

14. 14Cedric Thomas
Project Size
Market
Readiness
Ubuntu, Xen, ASM,
VLC, Tomcat, Bonita
Contrail
Open Nebula
Linux, OpenStack, LibreOffice,
Talend Open Studio, Gnome, KVM,
SpagoBI, Firefox, Eclipse, etc.
Genivi
OpenDaylight
OpenCloudware

15. 15Cedric Thomas
Project Size
Market
Readiness
Ubuntu, Xen, ASM,
VLC, Tomcat, Bonita
- Strong Community Support
- Start-up & Corporate Support
- Industry-grade Distributions
Contrail
Open Nebula
- Weak Community
- Limited Corporate Support
Linux, OpenStack, LibreOffice,
Talend Open Studio, Gnome, KVM,
SpagoBI, Firefox, Eclipse, etc.
- Community Maturity
- Governance by Non-Profit Org.
- Full Corporate Support
- Industry-grade Distributions
Genivi
OpenDaylight
OpenCloudware
- Fledgeling Community
- Limited Corporate Support

16. Cedric Thomas
Successful open source
projects are supported
by IT companies.
Corporate support ensures roadmap
consistency and long-term
sustainability.
Corporate support develops
industry-grade distributions and
market-ready offerings.
Corporate support helps grow
market outreach, sign-up early
adopters and provide use cases for
mainstream market.

17. Cedric Thomas
Successful projects
implement flawless open
source governance.
Open source governance best
practices help build sustainable
communities.
Code complementers more likely to
contribute to trustworthy OSS
projects.
Non-Profit open source
organizations provide neutral support
and sustainability.

18. 18Cedric Thomas
Collab. Project Deliverable
Software Market Expectations
POCs
Use-cases
Demonstrations
Code
Documentation
Roadmap
Upgrades
Bug-fixing
Training
Support
Packaging
Case studies
Collateral
Pricing
Contracts
Early adopters
Etc.
Governance
Sustainability
Critical mass
Open Source Specifics
Delivery
Challenge

19. 19Cedric Thomas
Enforce OSS Governance
Develop technology commons
Engage with EU OSS orgs.
Create business opportunities
Launch OSS marketplace
Proactive
OSS Strategy

20. Cedric Thomas
IT Industry
Collab.
Projects
Mainstream
Market
Delivery
Challenge

21. Enforce Open Source
Governance
→ Proper OSS governance as a
project evaluation criteria
→ Add OSS Manager to Exploitation
and Innovation managers
→ Require OSS projects to join and
comply with OSS communities.
IT Industry
OSS
Governance
Collab.
Projects
Mainstream
Market

22. Pay to develop
technology commons
→ Establish financial support for
project contributors
→ Develop market-ready technology
commons
→ Implement selection process of
high-potential OSS projects
IT Industry
OSS
Governance
Technology
commons
Collab.
Projects
Mainstream
Market

23. Engage with
EU-based OSS
communities
→ Support global EU-centric
communities, OW2, LibreOffice,
etc.
→ Involve them in existing EU
industry engagement mechanisms
→ Create incentives for industry to
support global EU-centric
communities, OW2, LibreOffice, etc
IT Industry
OSS
Governance
Technology
commons
OSS
Support
Collab.
Projects
Mainstream
Market

24. Create OSS business
opportunities.
→ Use EC IT buying power to
grow OSS market attractiveness
→ Develop user-side policy
guidelines supporting OSS
→ Help grow commercial support for
OSS technology commons
.
IT Industry
OSS
Governance
Technology
commons
OSS
Support
Business
Opportunites
Collab.
Projects
Mainstream
Market

25. Launch the EU OSS
shopping mall
→ Marketplace for selected open
source technology commons.
→ Facilitate connexion between
projects and market
→ Technology commons are ''pre-
competition''
IT Industry
OSS
Governance
Technology
commons
OSS
Support
Business
Opportunites
OSS
Marketplace
Collab.
Projects
Mainstream
Market

26. Launch the EU OSS
shopping mall
IT Industry
OSS
Governance
Technology
commons
OSS
Support
Business
Opportunites
OSS
Marketplace
Collab.
Projects
Mainstream
Market
Create business
opportunities
Engage with EU
OSS organizations
Pay to develop
technology commons
Enforce OSS
governance

27. Mar 19, 2015 27Cedric Thomas
Any body can do an OSS project
Communities vs Repositories
Governance vs Licence
Why governance
Governance styles
Governance

28. Mar 19, 2015 28Cedric Thomas
Anybody can create an
open source project
GitHub: 5 900 000*
SourceForge: 430 000*
OpenHub: 668 541*
* http://magazine.uc.edu/favorites/web-only/wanstrath.html
* http://sourceforge.net/about
* https://www.openhub.net/explore/projects
* http://fr.slideshare.net/blackducksoftware/open-source-by-the-numbers

29. Mar 19, 2015 29Cedric Thomas
Communities vs
Repositories
GitHub: 5 900 000*
SourceForge: 430 000*
OpenHub: 668 541*
Eclipse: 400
Apache: 250
OW2: 100
OpenStack: 20
* http://magazine.uc.edu/favorites/web-only/wanstrath.html
* http://sourceforge.net/about
* https://www.openhub.net/explore/projects
*

30. Mar 19, 2015 30Cedric Thomas
Governance vs License License
Legal framework
Grants people rights to use the
code
Reflects a business strategy
Governance
Social framework
Defines how people collaborate
Reflects an organization strategy
License = 0
Governance = 0

31. Mar 19, 2015 31Cedric Thomas
Governance vs License License
Legal framework
Grants people rights to use the
code
Reflects a business strategy
Governance
Social framework
Defines how people collaborate
Reflects an organization strategy
License = 0
Governance = 0
License = 1
Governance = 0

32. Mar 19, 2015 32Cedric Thomas
Governance vs License License
Legal framework
Grants people rights to use the
code
Reflects a business strategy
Governance
Social framework
Defines how people collaborate
Reflects an organization strategy
License = 0
Governance = 0
License = 1
Governance = 0
License = 1
Governance = 1
Ah! Much better!

33. Mar 19, 2015 33Cedric Thomas
When governance is
needed
Size of the community
Increasing conflicts
Extensive resources
Commercial interest
Source: Jono Bacon, The Art of Community

34. Mar 19, 2015 34Cedric Thomas
Governance styles
Benevolent dictator
Meritocracy
Democracy
Commercial

35. Mar 19, 2015 35Cedric Thomas
Communities have governance
Why implement governance
Governance styles
Community
Governance

36. Mar 19, 2015 36Cedric Thomas
https://www.apache.org/foundation/governance/

37. Mar 19, 2015 37Cedric Thomas
https://eclipse.org/org/documents/

38. Mar 19, 2015 38Cedric Thomas
https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Governance

39. Mar 19, 2015 39Cedric Thomas
http://www.libreoffice.org/about-us/governance/

40. Mar 19, 2015 40Cedric Thomas
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/cgl/governance

41. Mar 19, 2015 41Cedric Thomas
http://www.xenproject.org/governance.html

42. Mar 19, 2015 42Cedric Thomas
http://www.opendaylight.org/project/governance

43. Mar 19, 2015 43Cedric Thomas
http://www.ow2.org/view/About/Board

44. Mar 19, 2015 44Cedric Thomas
Governance elements
Community building plan
Technical Licensing Framework
Open source charter
Advisory Board
Governance benefits
Governance
In Action

45. Mar 19, 2015 45Cedric Thomas
Governance elements
Bylaws
Principles
Roles
Structures/Bodies
Decision making
Conflict solving
Ownership
Joining
Procedures
Elections
Etc.
Examples:
Board of Directors
Technology Council

46. Mar 19, 2015 46Cedric Thomas
Community Building
Stages
Infrastructure
Governance
Marketing
Technical Stage Open Source Stage Ecosystem Stage

47. Mar 19, 2015 47Cedric Thomas
Technical Licensing
Framework
Component license inventory,
positioning and linkage
Core Platform, Project deliverable
Applications, Demos, Use cases
Third Party Tooling
Execution, Processing environment
Applications
Core
Tools
Execution

48. Mar 19, 2015 48Cedric Thomas
The AppHub open source
charter
Project documentation
Use of and compliance with standards
Project testing process
Licenses, copyright and IP mgt
Tools and development environment
Commits and bug report mgt
Code maintainability and stability
Configuration and version mgt
Project planning
Requirement management
Project roadmap management
Stakeholders management

49. Mar 19, 2015 49Cedric Thomas
The AppHubAdvisory
Board
Theo Lynn (Irish Centre for Cloud
Computing & Commerce)
Lars Kurth (Xen)
Sophie Gautier (LibreOffice)
Roberto di Cosmo (IRILL)
Patrick Ohnewein (FSFe)
Wei-Tek Tsai (BUAA)
Francesco Chicchiricco (Apache
Coccon, Syncope, Olingo)
Manuel Velardo (Cenatic)
Dave Neary (Red Hat)
Nelson Lago (Uni Sao Paolo
FLOSS Competency Center)

50. Mar 19, 2015 50Cedric Thomas
A good OSS governance
strives at implementing
legal, technical and
community management
best practices
Improves the overall perception and
market readiness of the projects
Helps projects grow by making them
easy-to-contribute-to
Improve projects' perceived
trustworthiness and predictability
Make projects sustainable: worth
contributing to, worth investing in

51. Mar 19, 2015 51Cedric Thomas
What you should remember
Summary

52. Mar 19, 2015 52Cedric Thomas
Governance makes the
difference
Open source is a strategic driver in
collaborative software innovation
Aproactive OSS strategy to address
the Delivery Challenge of EU-projects
Repositories are no communities, open
source licenses are no governance
Well structured and experienced
communities drive open source success
Governance helps projects grow by
making them easy-to-contribute-to

53. Mar 19, 2015 53Cedric Thomas
Now let's talk!
Thank You

54. 54
www.ow2.orgwww.apphub.eu.com
For more details please contact Cedric Thomas, OW2 CEO, cedric.thomas@ow2.org