Building Bridges Across Company and

CommunityNithya A. Ruff

Sr. Director, Open Source PracticeComcast

@nithyaruff

Introducing Myself• Started working on how companies could

work with Open Source at SGI – 1998

• Successfully open sourced Tripwire for Linux and started a community - 2000

• Led a successful commercial embedded Linux distribution at Wind River – 2008

• Was a founding member of the Yocto Project - 2010

• On the board of the Linux Foundation - 2016

• Co-leader at Women of OpenStack and Women in OSS – 2015-2016

• Speaker on Company and Diverse Communities

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Is Open Source Experiencing Growing Pains?

OSS has become too commercial

Tension between Ideological and Commercial

Not mature enough for desktop

Not stable enough

@nithyaruff

78% Companies run or use Open Source Software, 3% don’t use Open Source in any way

With SW eating the world, Lots of new companies becoming SW companies today

Majority of communities have company developers and contribution

Millions of OSS projects in every area

No Surprises

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Companies and Communities are very different

@nithyaruff

@nithyaruff

• Open-source software (OSS) is computer software with its source code made available with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.

• [1] Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner. According to scientists who studied it, open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration.

Open Source Communities Definitions

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Every Community Is Different

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9C O N F I D E N T I A L A N D P R O P R I E T A R Y C O M C A S T I N F O R M A T I O N

U S I N G O P E N S O U R C E

C O N T R I B U T I N G T O O P E N S O U R C E

O P E N S O U R C E M E T H O D S

S TA R T I N G N E W P R O J E C T S

Companies in Community

Community 3.0?

Scale

Structure

Governance

Operations

Onboarding

Community Management

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How Do You Build Bridges?

Personal Lessons

• Understand before you are understood

• Value differences and strengths

• Respect each other• Open communications • Relationships = work• Don’t lose sense of self• You are responsible for your happiness

• Build on common purpose

@nithyaruff

Company Participation in Community

Respect Contribute Comply

Transparency Not Control

Provide Support

Community Growth

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•More than just code -Documentation -UI-Testing

•Onboarding New and Diverse Members of the Community

•More structured community management and formats

Building Bridges is Critical

•It is important to the future of this wonderful movement and way of working

•It is important to our growth and survival

•Let’s sit down together and see how we can build bridges

Building Bridges Across Company and CommunityNithya A. Ruff

@nithyaruff

Abstract

Increasingly companies are part of the open source ecosystem and are starting new projects and contributing to projects. And community members often feel that open source is becoming more commercial and driven by companies. How can we learn to work together and coexist? What can we do to increase our understanding of each other and find common ground and bridges? We need to work together more than ever as open source grows. Come and discuss with me, idea for how we can support the continued healthy evolution and momentum of open

Resources

• https://opensource.guide Guide to starting a new project and to contribute to OSS

• http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596001087.do The Cathedral and the Bazaar

• https://www.blackducksoftware.com/2016-future-of-open-source The Future of OSS Survey

• http://events.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/Commercial%20Products%20with%20OSS%20v1-0.pdf (Delivering High Quality Products based on OSS)

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