LinuxCon US 2015

1. 1
Why is Open Source Important to Samsung
and What Are We Doing About It?
Ibrahim Haddad, Ph.D.
VP, R&D and Head of Open Source Lab
Ibrahim.H@Samsung.com
@IbrahimAtLinux

2. 2
Some History
c
2002
Getting a taste
of Open Source
(Embedded Linux)
2005
2008
2013 2014
Establishing the
Open Source
Group
Increased
Adoption
Proliferation

3. 3
Why is Open Source Important to Samsung?

4. 4
But, Most Importantly

5. 5
[1] Building with OSS
Your
Product
or Service
Open
Source
Open Source Product Strategies
This model gives us the
ability to create
proprietary software
or service that work on
top of OSS.
Product
or
Service
Open
Source
In this model, proprietary
software or services have
strong dependencies upon
OSS and almost any new
product will heavily depend
on OSS to succeed.
[2] Building on OSS
Open
Source
Product
or
Service
Open
Source

6. 6
The Open Source Group

7. 7
Open
Source
Leadership
Open Source Group Mission

8. 8
On Open Source Leadership
Open source leadership can’t be given.
-It must be earned. You earn it by consistent participatio
n and contribution.
Open source leadership can not be taken
away.
-You lose it by lack of participation and contributions.

9. 9
Open Source Group: Current Focus Areas
Open Source
Foundations
Linux
Foundation
Software
Freedom Law
Center
Software
Conservancy
Center
GNOME
Foundation
Apache
Foundation
Mozilla
Foundation
Legal
Compliance
Manage
Compliance
Process in SRA-
SV
Advise R&D
Teams on Open
Source Legal
Compliance
Support teams
in Korea with
Compliance
Efforts and
Help Resolve
Inquiries
Evangelism
Strategy
Community
Launch new
projects on
behalf of SEC
Sponsor +
speak at
conferences
Organize
community
events
Deliver internal
training
Provide
mentorships for
junior engineers
Showcase
thought
leadership via
publications
Conduct
internal
technical
workshops
Advise SEC on
community
matters
Media
FFmpeg
Gstreamer
Standards
Web/W3C
(CSS, HTML5)
IoT
(Open
Interconnect
Consortium
+
IoTivity
Project)
Virtualization
KVM
QEMU
Web
Webkit
Blink
Graphics
Wayland
EFL
Cairo
System
Linux
Kernel
Tizen
Platform
TechnicalNon-Technical

10. 10
What do our Open Source developers do?
1. Upstream development 50%+ of their time on key OSS components.
2. Helping R&D and product teams on OSS components.
3. Knowledge transfer internally: technical training on open source
components, educating on open source development, mentoring
junior or non open source developers.
4. Being visible internally + externally: papers, conferences, community
events, etc.
5. Special projects / new ideas.

11. 11
Is it working?

12. 12
Example 1: Linux Kernel
`
`
`
`
`
Linux Foundation Kernel Report March 2012
From 30th to 5th top
position in < 4 years
Linux Foundation Kernel Report Sept 2013 Linux Foundation Kernel Report Feb 2015

13. 13
Increased Sign-offs (2013 vs. 2015)

14. 14
Newcomers from Samsung to Kernel (2014-2015)
Supporting factors:
1. Open source developer track
2. Maintainership Program
3. Open Source Frontiership Program

15. 15
Example 2: Wayland

16. 16
Example 3: Gstreamer + Plugins

17. 17
On the compliance side...

18. 18
Compliance hiccups fall under 6 buckets
1. Policy failure Employee did not follow policy / internal guidelines
1. Process failure Process oversight, corner cases, human error
2. Tooling failure Industrial scale automation leads to defects as you perfect
the tool or its usage
3. IP Failure Copy / Paste
4. SW Procurement failure Incoming non-compliance via 3rd party
1. Misc. failure Notice error, code versioning error, web site access error, etc
.

19. 19
Learning from our experiences …
1. Training Formal training delivered by the Open Source Group (OSG)
2. Policy Training + ongoing seminars + lighter and localized policy
1. Process Training + clearer, more efficient and localized process
2. Tooling Training + additional tooling (including in-house)
3. SW Procurement Training + reform agreements + templates
4. IP Failure Require approval for code re-use
5. Misc. Update process to include verification steps
1. Direct hotline to OSG Open Source Group acts as advisor on any open source
compliance inquiry.

20. 20
Portals Compliance Education Inventory Communication
Internal
External
Training
Guidelines
Licenses
New Employee
Orientation
Inventory
Manageme
nt
Audit 3rd
Party Code
Usage
Process + Policy
Distribution
Process + Policy
Auditing
Process + Policy
Checklists
Attribution
Policy
Documentation
Policy
Internal
External
Compliance par
t
of development
Dedicated Team
Scoreboard
The Compliance Infrastructure

21. 21
Building a Leadership Infrastructure

22. 22
High engagement
in open standards
Portals Compliance Education Inventory Communication
Internal
External
Training
Guidelines
Licenses
New Employee
Orientation
Inventory
Manageme
nt
Audit 3rd
Party Code
Usage
Process + Policy
Distribution
Process + Policy
Auditing
Process + Policy
Checklists
Attribution
Policy
Documentation
Policy
Internal
External
Compliance par
t
of development
Dedicated Team
Scoreboard
Contribution
Process + Policy
Increased scope
of engagement
+
Increased # of
OSS projects
Open Standards
Contributor
Training
Establish
organization
OSS Group
Hire from
OSS projects
Open source
proprietary code
Support OSS
foundations
Host OSS
events
Active with
OSS Licensing
Establish
Internal OSS
certification an
d career path
Mentorship
Program
Independent
IT Infra
Infrastructure to Support Drive to OSS Leadership

23. 23
 We continue to build the leadership blocks
Open Source Group
(HQ, SRA-SV, SRUK, SRI-B)
High number of maintainers,
committers and reviewers
Linux Foundation, Apache
Foundation, Mozilla Foundation,
GNOME , SFC, SFLC
Korea Linux Forum, SOCON,
Kernel Summit 2015, Contributors
Day (2x per year / Internal)
Frontiership
Program
Tizen
IoTivity
W3C
IoT
Mentorship
Program
Open Source
Mentorship
Program
Independent
IT infra
Open source IT infra:
Our own servers + IRC + WIKI +
VPN + Linux Laptops+ IMAP
support for Linux + Mailing Lists
Server + etc.
Heavily involved
in dozens of
projects used in
our products
Consumer + Basic
Participant
Infrastructure
Leadership blocks were established in 2013 & 2014

24. 24
Thought Leadership (US Team)

25. 25
Samsung & the Korean Open Source involvement
• Increased # of Korean companies active with OSS
foundations
• Increased # of Open Source conferences in Korea
- Led by Samsung: Korea Linux Forum, SOSCON, Kernel Summit,
etc.
• Significant increase in contributions to key Open
Source projects in past 5 years
• Very active local open source communities
- Samsung Open Source Group (Korean Office) is doing great job
with local communities
• New industries joining (automotive, finance)

26. 26
Closing Thoughts

27. 27
Why Focus on Open Source R&D?
Open Source R&D is very important to our
business.
• Allows shared development and lowers R&D cost.
• Helps us accelerate product development and
innovation.
• Gives us strong influence on technologies used in
products.
• Gives us ammunition in the ongoing talent war.

28. 28
Open Collaboration Principles
• We can’t hire all the smart people in the
world.
=> We need to find a way to tap into their
knowledge
and influence favorable outcomes in external
projects.
• Open source R&D creates significant value.
=> Internal R&D claims portion of that value.
• We don’t need to originate the research to
use it and benefit from it.

29. 29
More Emphasis on Software Innovation
• More R&D collaboration
• Better programming and development skills
• Better architectural skills
• Better software and system design skills
• Better integration skills
• Modular and scalable coding skills
• Software re-use skills
• Continuous testing and integration cycles
• etc.

30. 30
More Emphasis on Software Innovation
• More R&D collaboration
• Better programming and development skills
• Better architectural skills
• Better software and system design skills
• Better integration skills
• Modular and scalable coding skills
• Software re-use skills
• Continuous testing and integration cycles
• etc.

31. 31
We Are Adapting to Collaborative R&D
Collaboration
Transparency
Meritocracy
Contribution
Governance
Organizational
Knowledge
Reuse
Metrics
Culture Processes Tools
We’re on the right path.

33. 33
Questions / Discussion
Ibrahim Haddad, Ph.D.
VP, R&D and Head of Open Source Lab
Ibrahim.H@Samsung.com
@IbrahimAtLinux