When FOSS project communities reach a certain critical point in their growth, corporations express interest in participating. Corporations have more stringent and robust software IP management needs, however, and projects are not always up to the task. Neutral non-profit FOSS foundations have proved to be a solution to these problems, providing for the IP management needs of corporations while offering additional business and technical services to the project communities to encourage further growth and adoption. (Conference Details: http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale11x/presentations/evolution-open-source-software-foundation)

1. The
Evolu*on
of
the
Open
Source
So3ware
Founda*on
SCaLE11x
Stephen
R.
Walli
February
2013

2. The
Thesis
FOSS
Founda:ons
are
essen:al
to
enabling
the
growth
of
FOSS
Projects
when
companies
want
to
par:cipate,
contribute
and
adopt.

3. Two
Ra*os
~20
LoC/day
1
bug
:
1000
LoC

4. So3ware
Economics
Wri:ng
good
soIware
is
hard
work
Re-­‐use
is
everything
We
have
shared
soIware
since
we
wrote
it.
Liberally-­‐licensed
collabora:vely
developed
soIware
is
the
best
re-­‐use
strategy.

5. The
Economics
of
Shared
Development

6. The
Economics
of
Companies
Collabora*ng

7. Founda*ons
as
IP
Management
Machines
• This
is
the
history
of
the
FSF,
the
ASF,
the
OSDL/Linux
Founda:on,
and
the
Eclipse
Founda:on
• Regardless
of
what
each
founda:on
represents
to
its
members
and
cons:tuencies,
what
they
“do”
is
IP
management.

8. Henrik
Ingo’s
Observa*ons
Henrik
Ingo
determined
that
the
9
largest
most
vibrant
projects
are
governed
independently
by
founda:ons
(hXp://bit.ly/f3O34M)
The
tenth
largest
(is
company
supported)
is
an
order
of
magnitude
smaller

9. Neutrality
and
Ownership
“There
appears
to
be
a
glass
ceiling
for
single
vendor
projects
prohibi:ng
their
growth
from
the
Large
category
upwards.
”
—
Henrik
Ingo

10. An
Organic
Project
Life-­‐Cycle

11. What
is
a
FOSS
Founda*on?
Founda:ons
are
non-­‐profits*
that
provide:
Legal
Structure
Business
Opera:ons
Technical
Services
*
But
they
are
s:ll
businesses

12. Founda*ons
*
But
they
are
s:ll
businesses

13. Corporate
Projects

14. Corporate
Projects
?????
?????

15. Why
does
it
maNer?
Neutrality
encourages
contribu:on
Clean
IP
encourages
adop:on
Founda:ons
act
as
community
centre-­‐of-­‐gravity

16. Neutrality
Encourages
Contribu*on
(Inbound)

17. Neutrality
and
Ownership
• Successful
Projects
Grow
and
Evolve
un:l
…
– Apache
SoIware
Founda:on
– OSDL/Linux
Founda:on
– Eclipse
Founda:on

18. Clean
IP
Encourages
Adop*on
(Outbound)

19. Legal
Structures
are
Important
• License
(inbound/outbound)
• Assignments
and
Contribu:on
Licenses
• Provenance
tracking
• Liability
and
risk
management
• CommiXer
indemnifica:on

20. Founda*on
as
Community
Centre-­‐of-­‐Gravity

21. Crea*ng
Strong
Communi*es
• Support
an
Architecture
of
Par:cipa:on
• Make
it
easy
to
join
the
conversa:on
• Support
and
grow
commiXers
• Support
lines
of
communica:ons
• Provide
technical
services
+
infrastructure
(forges,
code
signing,
etc.)

22. Conclusions
While
liberally
licensed
shared
collabora:ve
soIware
development
may
represent
the
best
soIware
re-­‐use
strategy
we
have,
FOSS
Founda:ons
are
essen:al
to
the
par:cipa:on
of
companies
that
can
grow
and
sustain
FOSS
projects
and
their
communi:esn
long
term

23. Ques*ons?
Stephen
R.
Walli
Technical
Director,
Outercurve
Founda:on
hXp://www.outercurve.org
swalli@outercurve.org
hXp://stephesblog.blogs.com
(Once
More
unto
the
Breach)
hXp://www.networkworld.com/community/walli
@stephenrwalli