Digital sustainability of open source communities FOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 1 Digital sustainability of open source communities Dr. Matthias Stürmer Head of Research Center for Digital Sustainability at the Institute of Information Systems at University of Bern Free and Open Source Software Conference FOSSC Oman 19 February 2015 in Muscat, Oman
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Digital sustainability of open source communitiesFOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 1
Digital sustainability of open source communities
Dr. Matthias Stürmer
Head of Research Center for Digital Sustainability at the
Institute of Information Systems at University of Bern
Free and Open Source Software Conference FOSSC Oman
19 February 2015 in Muscat, Oman
Digital sustainability of open source communitiesFOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 2
Research Center for Digital Sustainability
Research, teaching and consulting on
● Open Source Software: Community governance, business models etc.
● Open Data: Visualization apps, open finance, participatory budgeting etc.
● Open Government: open government apps, Open Government Partnership etc.
● Net politics: net neutrality, copyright, data security, Internet governance etc.
● IT procurement: vendor dependencies, transparency, WTO regulations etc.
Dr. Matthias StürmerHead of the Research Centerfor Digital Sustainability
University of BernInstitute of Information SystemsEngehaldenstrasse 8CH-3012 BernSwitzerland
Digital sustainability of open source communitiesFOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 3
Agenda
1. The concept of digital sustainability
2. A historic example of digital sustainability
3. Elements of a sustainable open source community
4. Conclusions
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Definition of 'sustainability'
Original idea of sustainability: Only cut as much wood so it can grow again.(Hans Carl von Carlowitz, 1713)
Today's definition of sustainable development from the United Nation's Brundtlandt report:
„Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.“Source: Our Common Future (Brundtland Report) 1987 United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development
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Differenty types of sustainability
EcologicalSustainability
Digital sustainability of open source communitiesFOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 6
Differenty types of sustainability
EcologicalSustainability
SocialSustainability
Digital sustainability of open source communitiesFOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 7
Differenty types of sustainability
EcologicalSustainability
SocialSustainability
EconomicSustainability
Digital sustainability of open source communitiesFOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 8
Differenty types of sustainability
EcologicalSustainability
SocialSustainability
EconomicSustainability
DigitalSustainability
Digital sustainability of open source communitiesFOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 9
What is digital sustainability?
Definition of digital sustainability:
● Digital resources are handled sustainably if their utility for society is maximized, so that digital needs of contemporary and future generations are equally met.
● Digital needs are optimally met if resources are accessible to the largest number and reuseable with minimal restrictions.
● Digital resources encompass knowledge and cultural artefacts represented in digital form, e.g. text, image, audio, video, or software.
In German: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitale_Nachhaltigkeit
Source: Marcus Dapp, 2013. Open Government Data and Free Software – Cornerstones of a Digital Sustainability Agenda. In The 2013 Open Reader – Stories and articles inspired by OKCon 2013: Open Data, Broad, Deep, Connected.
3. Economic use of resources: Reuse of digital assets
4. Risk reduction: No firm dependencies, transparency
5. Absorptive capacity: Comprehensible content
6. Highest added value: Ideal policy conditions
Source: Stuermer, M. 2014 Characteristics of Digital Sustainability – Proceedings of The 8th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance ICEGOV 2014 – Link
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Why not 'informational sustainability'?
Source: IDC's Digital Universe Study, sponsored by EMC, December 2012http://www.emc.com/collateral/analyst-reports/idc-the-digital-universe-in-2020.pdf
THE DIAGRAMS BELOW DEFINE THE VIDEO PORTION OF THE RECORDING
GENERAL APPEARANCE OF WAVE FORM OF VIDEO SIGNALS FOUND ON THE RECORDING
BINARY CODE TELLS TIME OF THE SCAN (~8 msec)
SCAN TRIGGERING
VIDEO IMAGE FRAME SHOWING DIRECTION OF SCAN. BINARY CODE INDICATES TIME OF EACH SCAN SWEEP (512 VERTICAL LINES PER COMPLETE PICTURE)
IF PROPERLY DECODED, THE FIRST IMAGE WHICH WILL APPEAR IS A CIRCLE
THIS DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATES THE TWO LOWEST STATES OF THE HYDROGEN ATOM. THE VERTICAL LINES WITH THE DOTS INDICATE THE SPIN MOMENTS OF THE PROTON AND ELECTRON. THE TRANSITION TIME FROM ONE STATE TO THE OTHER PROVIDES THE FUNDAMENTAL CLOCK REFERENCE USED IN ALL THE COVER DIAGRAMS AND DECODED PICTURES.
THIS DIAGRAM DEFINES THE LOCATION OF OUR SUN UTILIZING 14 PULSARS OF KNOWN DIRECTIONS FROM OUR SUN. THE BINARY CODE DEFINES THE FREQUENCY OF THE PULSES.
PLAYING TIME, ONE SIDE = ~1 hour
ELEVATION VIEW OF RECORD
ELEVATION VIEW OF CARTRIDGE
PICTORIAL PLAN VIEW OF RECORD
OUTLINE OF CARTRIDGE WITH STYLUS TO PLAY RECORD (FURNISHED ON
SPACECRAFT)
BINARY CODE DEFINING PROPER SPEED (3.6 seconds/ROTATION) TO TURN THE RECORD (|=BINARY 1, ―= BINARY 0) EXPRESSED IN 0.70 × 10-9 seconds, THE TIME PERIOD ASSOCIATED WITH THE FUNDAMENTAL TRANSITION OF THE HYDROGEN ATOM
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Mozilla Firefox
Source: Sebastian Spaeth, Matthias Stuermer, Stefan Haefliger, Georg von Krogh 2007 „Sampling in Open Source Software Development: The case for using the Debian GNU/Linux Distribution“
As an Example of Package Dependencies in Debian: The Graph of Mozilla FirefoxUNIX command: apt-cache dotty firefox | dot -Tps > dependencygraph_firefox.ps
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Elements of asustainable open source community
A) Good governance
B) Heterogeneous community
C) Nonprofit foundation (doing marketing)
D) Ecosystem of commercial service providers
E) Opportunity for users to get things done
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● Successful example: Eclipse community initiated by IBM
Source: Spaeth, S., Stuermer, M. and von Krogh, G. (2010) ‘Enabling knowledge creation through outsiders: towards a push model of open innovation’, Int. J. Technology Management, Vol. 52, Nos. 3/4, pp.411–431.
Launch of theEclipse Foundation
Release of sourcecode by IBM
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Bad governance may result in a fork
● Unfriendly separation of an open source community (mostly)● Important sword of damocles of open source projects
– Necessary if initiator or another central player missuses his control– Sometimes necessary for radical innovations (OpenSSL - LibreSSL)
Some famous examples of open source forks:
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History of OpenOffice.org etc.
Source: Presentation of Apache OpenOffice at OSB Alliance Workshop, 30 October 2013 in Stuttgart
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LibreOffice fork of OpenOffice.org
Source: Jonas Gamalielsson/Björn Lundell, Sustainability of Open Source software communities beyond a fork: How and why has the LibreOffice project evolved? The Journal of Systems and Software 89 (2014) 128– 145
Digital sustainability of open source communitiesFOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 38
Elements of asustainable open source community
A) Good governance
B) Heterogeneous community
C) Nonprofit foundation (doing marketing)
D) Ecosystem of commercial service providers
E) Opportunity for users to get things done
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Linux kernel development
Source: YouTube Video „Linux Kernel Development Visualization (git commit history - past 6 weeks - june 02 2012)“ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_02QGsHzEQ
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Linux contributions by companies
Source: Linux Foundation, February 2015 „Linux Kernel Development How Fast is it Going, Who is Doing It, What Are They Doing and Who is Sponsoring the Work“ http://www.linuxfoundation.org/publications/linux-foundation/who-writes-linux-2015
Top 10 companies contributing to the kernel from 2013-09-02 till 2014-12-07:
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Linux kernel facts
Source: Linux Foundation, February 2015 „Linux Kernel Development How Fast is it Going, Who is Doing It, What Are They Doing and Who is Sponsoring the Work“ http://www.linuxfoundation.org/publications/linux-foundation/who-writes-linux-2015
● Linux kernel development is one of thelargest cooperative software projects ever
● Over 10'000 patches for each kernel release, kernel updates every 2-3 months
● Since 2005 some 11'800 individual developers from nearly 1200 different companies contributed to the kernel
● Distributor kernels contain relatively few distribution-specific changes
● At least 80% of developers are paid to work on Linux
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Diverse motivations
Why do individuals develop open source software?
Source: Georg von Krogh, Stefan Haefliger, Sebastian Spaeth, and Martin W. Wallin "Carrots and Rainbows: Motivation and Social Practice in Open Source Software Development" MIS Quarterly 2012, Vol 36 Issue 2, pp. 649-676
IdeologyAltruism
KinshipFun
Reputation
ReciprocityLearning
Own-useCareer
Pay
Intrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation
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Elements of asustainable open source community
A) Good governance
B) Heterogeneous community
C) Nonprofit foundation (doing marketing)
D) Ecosystem of commercial service providers
E) Opportunity for users to get things done
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Nonprofit association
● Many large open source communities have an nonprofit umbrella organization: Linux, Apache, Eclipse, Gnome, KDE, Mozilla, Python, TYPO3 etc.
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Conclusion:
Do more marketing for open source projects!
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Time is ready to sell open source
Time
Functionality
Average customer requirementse.g. for office suiteor database
Today
Proprietary producte.g. Microsoft Office or Oracle database
10 years ago
Open source producte.g. LibreOffice or PostgreSQL
Source: Diagram from Clayton M. Christensen „The Innovator's Dilemma“ (1997) adapted to open source context
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Elements of asustainable open source community
A) Good governance
B) Heterogeneous community
C) Nonprofit foundation (doing marketing)
D) Ecosystem of commercial service providers
E) Opportunity for users to get things done
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Business models with open source
1. Custom development - Customers pay for the software to becustomized to meet their specific requirements.
2. Services/support - Ad hoc support calls, service, training and consulting contracts.
3. Support subscriptions - An annual, repeatable support and service agreement.
4. Value-added subscriptions - An annual, repeatable support and service agreement with additional features/functionality delivered as a service.
5. Software as a service (SaaS) - Paid access to and use of the software via hosted or cloud services.
6. Complementary products and services - Open source software is not used to directly generate revenue; instead, complementary products provide revenue.
7. Advertising - Software is free to use and is funded by associated advertising.
8. Closed source licenses - For a version of the full project, a larger software package, hardware appliance based on the project, or extensions to the open source core.
Source: Future of Open Source Survey https://www.blackducksoftware.com/future-of-open-source
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Elements of asustainable open source community
A) Good governance
B) Heterogeneous community
C) Nonprofit foundation (doing marketing)
D) Ecosystem of commercial service providers
E) Opportunity for users to get things done
Digital sustainability of open source communitiesFOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 56
Opportunity for users to get things done
How can users influence development in case the programmershave no „itch“ to work on certain things?
Source: Georg von Krogh, Stefan Haefliger, Sebastian Spaeth, and Martin W. Wallin "Carrots and Rainbows: Motivation and Social Practice in Open Source Software Development" MIS Quarterly 2012, Vol 36 Issue 2, pp. 649-676
Digital sustainability of open source communitiesFOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 57
Opportunity for users to get things done
How can users influence development in case the programmershave no „itch“ to work on certain things?
Source: Georg von Krogh, Stefan Haefliger, Sebastian Spaeth, and Martin W. Wallin "Carrots and Rainbows: Motivation and Social Practice in Open Source Software Development" MIS Quarterly 2012, Vol 36 Issue 2, pp. 649-676
IdeologyAltruism
KinshipFun
Reputation
ReciprocityLearning
Own-useCareer
Intrinsic motivation
Extrinsicmotivation
Pay
Digital sustainability of open source communitiesFOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 58
Opportunity for users to get things done
How can users influence development in case the programmershave no „itch“ to work on certain things?
Source: Georg von Krogh, Stefan Haefliger, Sebastian Spaeth, and Martin W. Wallin "Carrots and Rainbows: Motivation and Social Practice in Open Source Software Development" MIS Quarterly 2012, Vol 36 Issue 2, pp. 649-676
IdeologyAltruism
KinshipFun
Reputation
ReciprocityLearning
Own-useCareer
Intrinsic motivation
Extrinsicmotivation
Pay
Digital sustainability of open source communitiesFOSSC Oman, 19 February 2015 59
A) Open source feature requests e.g. on www.bountysource.com
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Process of institutional crowd-funding
Phase 1: Initializationa) Mobilize interest of institutional open source software users, find funding for specificationb) Create clear and common understanding of the issues, ask the expertsc) Result: aggregated requirements, clustered as Use Cases within a specification
Phase 3: Implementationa) Define project management, sign contracts, start implementingb) Do testing among open source software users, finalize developmentc) Result: Publish new source code, pass it upstream to the open source project
Phase 2: Fundinga) Publish specification as Request for Proposal (RfP), invite comanies to offerb) Evaluate and decide for best proposal(s)c) Result: find funding from institutional open source software users for each Use
Case to implement the specification
Continue only if previous phase is completed successfully
Continue only if previous phase is completed successfully
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Example of institutional crowd-funding
Goal: Improving OOXML interoperability in LibreOffice
Public Institutions● City of Freiburg i.B.● City of München● City of Jena● Swiss Federal Court● Federal Steering Unit for IT (ISB)● Canton of Vaud● Another Swiss federal agency
Coordinated byWorking Group Office Interoperability ofOpen Source Business Alliance OSBA
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Funding model
SUSE
Lanedo
Development funded by● City of Freiburg i.B.● City of München● City of Jena● Swiss Federal Court● Federal Steering
Unit for IT (ISB)● Canton of Vaud● Another Swiss federal
agency● French ministry
of culture and communication
Ernst & Young
EUR 50kEUR 13k
EUR 13k
EUR 4kEUR 8k
EUR 15k
EUR 14k
EUR 25k
Total: approx. EUR 140k (excl. VAT)
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Agenda
1. The concept of digital sustainability
2. A historic example of digital sustainability
3. Elements of a sustainable open source community
4. Conclusions
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Conclusions
Elements of a sustainable open source community:
1. Good governance:Manage your community in a fair way.
2. Heterogeneous community:Foster diversity within your community.
3. Nonprofit foundation:Empower the central office of your community.(and do as much professional marketing as possible)
4. Ecosystem of commercial service providers:Support companies to provide services for the software.
5. Opportunity for users to get things done:Provide feature request market place or something similar.
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...so YOUR open source project will continue to fly for millions of years!