XWiki SAS est une société qui sponsorise le développement du logiciel open source XWiki (http://xwiki.org). De plus le développement du logiciel est communautaire et suit les règles de développement de la fondation Apache. Vincent Massol, directeur technique de XWiki SAS présentera comme la société est organisée de l’intérieur, ses sources de revenus, comment se font les recrutements et quels sont les liens avec le projet open source et les tensions inhérentes entre une société à but commercial et un projet open source communautaire.

1. 27 au 29 mars 2013
XWiki SAS
an open source company
Vincent Massol
XWiki Committer
CTO XWiki SAS
!
@vmassol
Vincent Massol, March 2014

2. XWiki SAS - Quick Timeline
• 2003: Ludovic Dubost created the XWiki open source project, an
Extensible enterprise wiki
• 2004: Creation of XPertNet by Ludovic, office in Paris
• 2005: First employee & first customer
• 2007: XWiki Romania creation
• 2008: Ethical Open Source commitment through Manifesto
• 2008:All employees become shareholders
• 2014: XWiki Algeria creation

3. XWiki SAS - The team!
July 2013 Seminar

4. XWiki SAS: A Distributed Company
1
13
1
1
1 4
1
161
1• GSOC: Romania
• Open source hires (e.g. USA)
• Past: Russia + Sri Lanka
• Buyout:Algeria

5. Team Organization
Product Dev
(6)
Sales &
Marketing
(4)
Product
Marketing
(3)
Research
(3)
Platform
(2)
HR
(2)
Support
(3)
Client
Projects
(15)
XWiki
SAS

6. What type of company is XWiki SAS?
• A software publisher?
• No license revenue since it’s all LGPL and free
• Majority of developers are working on client projects
• A Service Company?
• Yes but it also spends a large part of its revenues (about 30%)
sponsoring the development of the XWiki open source product

7. Open source Business model
Downloads/year
New active installs/year
(sticking users)
New clients or projects/year
(viral marketing, clients calling in)
250K
2500
25
10% of installs
1% of active installs
+ 90% renewal of existing customers
New installs/year 25000 10% of downloads
Sep. 2013 - Feb 2014

8. What does XWiki SAS sell?
2012

9. Revenues - Sales + subsidies
Source: Mid 2013

10. Open source project management
• Independent from XWiki SAS, defines its own rules
• Meritocracy, similar rules as ASF (Apache Software Foundation)
• VETO (-1) on mailing list to remain honest!
• Only individuals at open source level (no company), everyone at the
same level
• Consensus-based approach (no hierarchical decisions)

11. Active Committers & Contributors
• XWiki SAS: 38
• Core Committers: 19
• Contributors: 60
• Contributors but not
Core Committers: 41
• 60% of Core
Committers are from
XWiki SAS
XWiki SAS Open source contributors
Core
Committers
5 21 12 7 20

12. Roadmap Process
Product
Dev
Sales &
Marketing
Product
Marketing
Research
Platform
Support
Client
Projects
Roadmap Team
XWiki SAS (Company) Open Source Project (Individuals)
Developer 1
Developer 2
Developer 3
Developer 4
Developer 1
Developer 2
Developer 3
Developer 4
Developer 5
Developer 6
Developer 7
Developer 8

13. Challenges
• Ambiguity between “XWiki” (the open source project) and “XWiki” (the
company, which we call “XWiki SAS”)
• Need an official legal foundation to hold the “XWiki” trademark and allow
donations.
• Could make it easier for outsiders to invest in the XWiki project
• Open source is about Give-Give
• Works if businesses play the game
• Problem of SSII in France for example who take but don’t give much in
general
• Attract even more contributors/committers and businesses sponsoring the
development of XWiki

14. Q&A
Me

15. Vincent Massol
• Speaker Bio
• CTO XWiki SAS
• Your Projects
• XWiki (community-driven open source project)
• Past: Maven,Apache Cargo,Apache Cactus, Pattern Testing
• Other Credentials:
• LesCastCodeurs podcast
• Creator of OSSGTP open source group in Paris
• 3 books: JUnit in Action, Maven:A Developer’s Notebook, BBWM