"True Stories from Open Source" by Danese Cooper @ eLiberatica 2009

True Stories from Open Source

Danese CoopereLiberaticaBucharest, 23 May 2009

Slide © 2009 Danese Cooper, Contact: [email protected]

What is Open Source?As defined at www.opensource.org: Binaries + Source Code distributed together

under an OSD-compliant license

Freely modifiable Freely redistributable Freely forkable Non-discriminatory = anyone can play Non-revokable = code must remain open


What is OSI?A non-profit organization providing

leadership for the Open Source movement, through…

Bridge-building Leadership Spokesmanship

Bridge-Building: Most generally, OSI's job is to build bridges between the hacker culture and the mainstream, to educate the people who meet on those bridges, and to assist them in building bonds of practice and trust that can enable both groups to benefit from sustained cooperation.

Leadership: Inseparable from the job of bridge-building is one of community leadership. To represent our community to the mainstream, we must both hold the trust of our community and be seen to hold that trust. We earn that trust by being effective wise(wo)men and influence leaders, helping the community find direction and response to challenges as they arise.

Spokesmanship: Our community expects and requires of us that we will not only lead on the tough issues, but that we will use our visibility and credibility to give the open-source community an effective voice in the larger world.

The most obvious mode of bridge-building has been our maintainance of the OSD and certification of open-source licenses. Since we took on this job in 1998, we have developed an enviable reputation as honest brokers between the corporate world and the hackers, trusted by both sides to maintain the social contract that supports their cooperation to the tune of billions of dollars of money and labor exchanged every year.

We have successfully led the community response to several serious crises, including Microsoft's attempts to discredit the GPL in 2001-2002 and the SCO lawsuit in 2003. We have also done remarkably well in the area of spokesmanship, establishing OSI as an upright and respectable “good-guy” organization which almost invariably garners favorable media coverage. These are achievements about which all present and former members of OSI can feel justly proud. Very few advocacy organizations with barely six years of history have ever achieved as much.

However, in considering OSI's mission, it is important that we not confuse tactics with strategy or means with ends. License certification, important as it is, is a means not an end. So is successful PR. These tactics were not the entirety of OSI's founding mission, nor do they encompass all of our responsibilities today. Very concretely, these tactics would not include projects like the Open Source Awards which are clearly within the scope of OSI's charter objectives.

The discussion of roles and responsibilities in the remainder of this document, therefore, should not be read in light of a narrow set of specific objectives such as license certification or the OSAs. Rather, they should be read as operating procedures for an organization with a very general mission of bridge-building, leadership, and spokesmanship.

Cool, but does anybody actually USE it?


Government AdoptionBristol, England switches to StarOffice

Kerala, India goes Open Source

Brasil loves Linux!

Malaysian “Master Plan” for Open Source

1978 - Bill Joy ships 1BSD1983 - Richard Stallman writes GNU Manifesto1991 - Linus Torvalds starts Linux project1995 - Brian Behlendorf starts Apache project1997 - Bruce Perens’ Open Source Definition1998 - Netscape creates Mozilla project. - Tim O’Reilly hosts meeting where term “Open Source” is coined1999 - Open Source Certification mark launched by OSI


RedHat Map



Its a Small World Afterall



Happiest Place On Earth



But is it Sustainable?



...or a Ship of Fools?



Back to Governments...



Bristol: value for money



Kerala: total commitment



Malaysia: persistence



Brasil: national pride



So you want to adopt open source?



Five Stages of Adoption



What is Open Source Methodology?

Use an OSI-approved license Document every decision / action Use simple and available tools Reward merit with increased

responsibility Work transparently Encourage contribution

All decisions are made or at least memorialized on mail lists which are publicly archived and searchable.-new participants learn the project by researching the archive

Toolset is simple and also open sourced, which removes barriers to participation -typical tools include CVS, BugZilla, mail lists, Increased responsibility is a reward for merit -Commit access is granted only after individual has submitted worthy code to project for some period of time.All bugs are public -Security, encryption and other “controversial” issues are vetted in public under belief that peer review yields better code than secrecy.One codebase -Barring community from earning commit access indicates lack of trust


Is Open Source Anarchy? In fact only those with reputation can

commit code Massive peer review = more QA staff

than you can hire Massive peer review also promotes

higher quality check-ins Published roadmaps and acceptance

criteria guide community expectation

Loose lips donʼt sink ships anymore


Open Source Companies









? ?

?All decisions are made or at least memorialized on mail lists which are publicly archived and searchable.

-new participants learn the project by researching the archiveToolset is simple and also open sourced, which removes barriers to participation -typical tools include CVS, BugZilla, mail lists, Increased responsibility is a reward for merit -Commit access is granted only after individual has submitted worthy code to project for some period of time.All bugs are public -Security, encryption and other “controversial” issues are vetted in public under belief that peer review yields better code than secrecy.One codebase -Barring community from earning commit access indicates lack of trust


Open Standards?




Open Standards?

Not defined 40 years of baggage Way too much wiggle room for

companies

Standards should be “Open-Source Implementable”




Summary

Open Source is a Global Phenomenon Open Source is a recognized skill set Open Source is increasingly a core

competency for companies, governments

Not all “Open” is equivalent




Sources Bristol http://www.opensourceacademy.gov.uk/news_and_events/

press_releases/article/bristol-switches-to-staroffice/ Kerala http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-152441.html Malaysia http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4602325.stm Data Map http://flowingdata.com/2009/04/30/is-your-country-

involved-in-open-source/ 5 Stages http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10246722-16.html?

part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad Hungarian Procurement http://www.osor.eu/news/hu-

procurement-continues-to-puzzle-open-source-companies

See you atwww.opensource.org

[email protected]

"True Stories from Open Source" by Danese Cooper @ eLiberatica 2009

Technology

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