Open Source Software: Governance Makes the Difference Cédric Thomas, OW2 CLASS 215 Conference Ljubliana, Slovenia 5-6 Novemberr, 2015
Agenda The Context: Software Business Fundamentals of OSS Governance The Essence of OSS Governance OSS Governance in Action Summary * OSS = Open Source Software 2
The Context: Software Business Software as Code Software as Product The Sofware Product Value Chain 3
Software is Code 4
What is a Software Product*? Customer Developer * When you want to sell it or do business with it, then it becomes a product 5
What is a Software Product*? Documentation Packaging Roadmap Training Etc. Customer Developer Upgrades Pricing Contracts Support Expertise * It's not just code anymore, it's the whole value proposition 6
A Quick Business View 7
Oracle Revenues Page 87 8
2/3 of Revenues in Support and Services Software product licenses Cloud SaaS Cloud IaaS Software updates and support Hardware systems products Hardware systems support Services revenue M$ % % 8 535 22% 1 485 4% 0 608 2% 18 847 49% 49% 2 825 7% 2 380 6% 6% 3 546 9% 9% 38 226 100% 65% M$ % 8 535 29% 1 485 5% 0 608 2% 18 847 64% 29 475 100% New software licenses Cloud SaaS Cloud IaaS Software updates and support Hardware systems products Hardware systems support Services revenue 9
Research & Development Code POCs Use-cases Demonstrations Product & Marketing Documentation Roadmap Upgrades Bug-fixing Training Support Packaging Case studies Collateral Pricing Contracts Early adopters Etc. Open Source Governance Predictability Quality Sustainability Software Market Value Without the code, the rest does not exist,but it's the rest that gives market value to the code 10
OSS Governance Fundamentals Free Software Fundamentals Commercial Open Source Governance Fundamentals * OSS = Open Source Software Now let's see what is the Nature of the rest in open source 11
0> The freedom to run the software for any purpose 12
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 13
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 14
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 15
Free Software Project Free Software PROJECT COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE The four freedoms define the environment of free software projects 16
Free Software Project vs Commercial Product Free Software Commercial PROJECT PRODUCT COMMUNITY COMPANY GOVERNANCE MANAGEMENT c 17
Commercial Open Source Free Software Commercial PROJECT PRODUCT COMMUNITY COMPANY GOVERNANCE MANAGEMENT c 18
Open Source Governance is a Social Process How decisions are made How conflicts are resolved How resources are used What is expected from participants How participants are selected How participants should behave What are the Rules and the Roles What are the key processes How the community is organized 19
When governance is needed Size of the community Increasing conflicts Extensive resources Commercial interest Source: Jono Bacon, The Art of Community 20
The Essence of OSS Governance Anybody can do an OSS project Communities vs Repositories Governance vs License Why governance Governance styles 21
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 22
A Repository does not make a Community 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 * 23
A License does not make a Governance 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 24
Governance vs License License Legal framework This is your project Grants people rights to use the code Reflects a business strategy Governance Social framework Defines how people collaborate Reflects an organization strategy 25
Governance vs License License Legal framework License = 0 Governance = 0 Grants people rights to use the code Reflects a business strategy Governance Social framework Defines how people collaborate Reflects an organization strategy 26
Governance vs License License Legal framework License = 0 Governance = 0 Grants people rights to use the code Reflects a business strategy License = 1 Governance = 0 Governance Social framework Defines how people collaborate Reflects an organization strategy 27
Governance vs License License Legal framework License = 0 Governance = 0 Grants people rights to use the code Reflects a business strategy License = 1 Governance = 0 Governance Social framework Defines how people collaborate Reflects an organization strategy License = 1 Governance = 1 Ah! Much better! 28
Benevolent dictator Governance styles Governance is something a bit more complicated to the point that we can talk about governance styles 29
Benevolent dictator Governance styles Meritocracy 30
Benevolent dictator Governance styles Meritocracy Democracy 31
Benevolent dictator Governance styles Meritocracy Democracy Commercial 32
Governance In Action Communities have governance Governance elements Community building plan Technical Licensing Framework Open source charter Advisory Board Governance benefits 33
https://www.apache.org/foundation/governance/ 34
https://eclipse.org/org/documents/ 35
https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/governance 36
http://www.libreoffice.org/about-us/governance/ 37
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/cgl/governance 38
http://www.xenproject.org/governance.html 39
http://www.opendaylight.org/project/governance 40
http://www.ow2.org/view/about/board 41
Bylaws Governance elements Principles Roles Structures/Bodies Decision making Voting rules Ownership Joining Examples: Board of Directors Technology Council Procedures Elections Etc. 42
Project documentation The AppHub open source charter 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 43
The AppHub Advisory 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) 44
Governance makes the difference What you should remember 45
A good OSS governance helps implement legal, technical and community best practices Fosters quality in all aspects of software development Improves the overall perception and market readiness of the projects Improve projects' perceived trustworthiness and predictability Make projects sustainable: worth contributing to, worth investing in Helps projects grow by making them easy-to-contribute-to 46
Thank you How good is your project governance? www.ow2.org For more details please contact, OW2 CEO, cedric.thomas@ow2.org 47