LinuxCon NA: Xen Project, Lessons Learned

Lars Kurth Community Manger, Xen Project

Chairman, Xen Project Advisroy Board

Director, Open Source, Citrix

lars_kurth

Was a contributor to various projects

Worked in parallel computing, tools, mobile and now virtualization

Long history in change projects

Community guy at Symbian Foundation Learned how NOT to do stuff

Community guy for the Xen Project Working for Citrix Accountable to Xen Project Advisory Board Chairman of Xen Project Advisory Board

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

Pro

jecte

d

Source: The 2013 Future of Open Source Survey Results

More than 1 Projects Million Today

Late 90’s

Today

Individuals & Hobbyist's Still about Individuals

But, a majority are employees

Companies have a huge stake

and pressure to succeed

Features

How many users you have

How many vendors back you

How you are seen in the press

…

Different Management

Disciplines

can help you succeed

Neutrality / Perception

Support Infrastructure

Expertise / Mentoring

Vendor Network

…

BUT: You still need to do

all the right things

Case Study

An Open Source Hypervisor > 10M Users

Powering some of the biggest Clouds in Production Amazon Web Services, Rackspace Public Cloud, Terremark, …

Several sub-projects Xen Hypervisor, XAPI management tools, Mirage OS

Linux Foundation Collaborative Project Sponsored by Amazon Web Services, AMD, Bromium, Calxeda, CA Technologies, Cisco, Citrix, Google, Intel, NetApp, Oracle, Samsung and Verizon

10 years old

Fixes that were applied (there may be others)

Effect this had

Magnifying effect

Symptoms Consequences for Xen

Four Key Issues

At the end : Reflection & Tools

Unwritten Rules Undefined Roles Lack of Upfront Collaboration

Hard to join the project Vendors got frustrated Hard to work with the project

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now

Xen

Governance

Canonical drops

Xen

RedHat drops

Xen in RHEL6

Roadmap

& Release

Management

Another key

vendor nearly dropped Xen

Technical

Coordination

Team

1st KVM

release Growth potential

was limited early

Xen becomes

LF Collaborative Project

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2010 2011 2012 2013 (H1)

UPC Spectra Logic Redhat iwebGridCentric Calxeda Fujitsu (Misc)AWS (Academia) John Hopkins University AMDLinaro Oracle NSA Intel

Theory: vendor neutrality = more contributors

Early indicators: Individual Contributors have doubled Advisory Board members are becoming contributors Momentum in new market segments is building

Advisory Board is developing a long term project Vision Creating incentives to become more mature

Inwards focus

– Not working with upstreams (branched kernel and QEMU)

– Not working with distros (users are not “our” problem)

Created “pain for distros”

Intercommunity Friction

Introvert Community

Image Problem

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now

IBM, VMware, Red Hat and Citrix

Agree on PVOPS in Linux kernel

Linux Guest

support for Xen

Linux Host

support for Xen

Upstream QEMU

complete

Actively

working

with

distros

Improved Relationships & Trust

Xen Developers Care about Users

Xen becoming easier to use

Improved Image in the media and FOSS community

Significant increase in Goodwill from the LINUX community

Working with upstream & downstream projects is easier

Collaboration happening earlier than in the past Automotive, Mobile, Embedded

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now

Focus on events for the existing community only

Enough Papers

Enough Talks

Enough Communication

By enough vendors

Xen Books

Competing Projects Excelled at Communication

Change of Guard

Empty Promises

Blog 1 Person

Project became an “invisible man” Belief that Xen is not open source Slowed the growth of the user base

Perception: the project is “dead” Constant stories in the press that the project is dying

First: Defiance – this is all “Fud” Then: Project started to believe this too

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now

Confidence Building

Community Blog

Events v2

Community spokespeople

Project perception has changed Neutral to positive No more “Xen is not OSS / Xen is Dead” New influx of people to the project

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

2010 2011 2012 2013 (H1)

Talks / Events / Orgs

Increase in Goodwill in the FOSS Community No more Xen bashing

Significant increase in social media activity

Linux Foundation Expertise Press Releases and other LF channels

Managing Events

Xen Project Advisory Board : Marketing and PR Committee

Companies Community

Within Citrix : via the process of “giving up control”

Big enough plan to catch the attention of senior management

Forced decision makers in the hierarchy to consider the value of FOSS

Amongst companies supporting the project financially

Forced decision makers in contributors to go through a similar process

Governance and Neutrality Matter

Projects don’t exist in isolation

Poor Marketing and Communication can kill you

Good project sponsors can make a difference

Being part of a Foundation can make a big difference

A project needs to constantly evolve

License & Development Model

Linux (but also BSDs) are key components in a Xen stack

Most Xen contributors were Linux Foundation members

Vendor Friendly

Strengths: PR, User Outreach, Events Management, …

Multi-discipline Complexity

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

Think of the funnel boundary as a

permeable membrane, not a fixed

border

It can take >2 years for changes at

the top of the funnel to make a

difference at the bottom

The Funnel has feedback loops:

what happens at the top can affect

the bottom

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

Control the permeability and shape of the funnel

Activities Attributes Events

Project Scope E.g. Xen on ARM, Mirage OS

Increase the width and thus the

potential market for the project

How can we influence how the Community Funnel works?

Some items are in your control

Others - such as what the competition does - are not!

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

Example: Factors influencing early stages of open source software adoption

Documentation

Ease of Use

Training

On-boarding

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

More People drop out

Funnel

becomes

narrower

Negative Feedback:

vendors may

stop contributing

Bad Press

Example: Negative feedback loop

The Community Funnel is an excellent internal sales tool Reason: Sales and Business people understand funnels

It helps you understand what is happening

It helps prioritize what to focus on Covers the time dimension : some issues take longer to fix than others

Forces you to consider the “Big Picture”

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

2011

Event Presence

Ease of Use

Press

Governance

Social Media

Neutrality

WebSite

Collaboration Values

Brand

Documentation Getting Started

Support

Volunteer Programs

Community Programs

Platforms for Self Promotion

Business Opportunities

Communication

Extend Project Scope

Distros Training

Diversity

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

Event Presence

Ease of Use

Press

Governance

Social Media

Neutrality

WebSite

Collaboration Values

Brand

Documentation Getting Started

Support

Volunteer Programs

Community Programs

Platforms for Self Promotion

Communication

Extend Project Scope

Business Opportunities

Distros Training

Diversity

Distros

Volunteer Programs

Community Programs

Values Collaboration

Ease of Use

WebSite Documentation Getting Started

Governance Neutrality Business Opportunities

Press Social Media Brand

ARM + Mirage OS

Event Presence Communication Event Presence Communication

Diversity

NOW

Follow Industry News

Follow Project News

Adopt Software

Engage with Users

Trial Software

Engage with Industry

Evangelize

Contribute

Customize

Lead

Event Presence

Ease of Use

Press

Governance

Social Media

Neutrality

WebSite

Collaboration Values

Brand

Documentation Getting Started

Support

Volunteer Programs

Community Programs

Platforms for Self Promotion

Communication

Extend Project Scope

Business Opportunities

Distros Training

Diversity

Distros

Volunteer Programs

Community Programs

Values Collaboration

Ease of Use

WebSite Documentation Getting Started

Governance Neutrality Business Opportunities

Press Social Media Brand

ARM + Mirage OS

Event Presence Communication Event Presence Communication

Diversity

NOW (areas that so far benefited from being in the Linux Foundation)

To succeed, a wide range of “community” and “management” tools

need to be applied continuously

More info at: xenproject.org

Please rate the talk on slideshare or twitter

www.slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr/

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For all Product Names

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Flickr:

“Messy Apartment” by Ryo Chijiiwa

“The Ivory Tower” by Daniel Parks

“Desert Road 9” by LabyrinthX

“Cottob Plant” by Aileen

“Gigant Sequoia Trees” by Raj

“Damselfly caught in sundew” by Mysserli

Other Images:

By Lars Kurth or aquired

Xen Project:

www.xenproject.org wiki.xenproject.org lists.xenproject.org xenbits.xenproject.org

@xen_org

##xen

Funnel:

talesfromthecommunity.wordpress.com