FOSS  Founda*ons  Enable  Community  Growth  

Stephen  R.  Walli  

September  2011  

What  is  a  Founda*on?  

Founda8ons  are  non-­‐profits*  that  provide:  Legal  Structure  

Business  Opera8ons  Technical  Services  

*  But  they  are  s8ll  businesses  

Founda*ons  

*  But  they  are  s8ll  businesses  

Corporate  Projects  

Why  does  it  ma?er?  

Neutrality  encourages  contribu8on  Clean  IP  encourages  adop8on  

Founda8ons  act  as  community  centre-­‐of-­‐gravity  

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

Crea*ng  Strong  Communi*es  

•  Support  an  Architecture  of  Par8cipa8on  •  Make  it  easy  to  join  the  conversa8on    

•  Support  and  grow  commiPers  

•  Support  lines  of  communica8ons  

•  Provide  technical  services  (forges,  code  signing,  etc.)  

Neutrality  Encourages  Contribu*on  (Inbound)  

Neutrality  and  Ownership  

•  Henrik  Ingo  sta8s8cs  on  founda8ons  and  project  ac8vity  (hPp://bit.ly/f3O34M)  

Neutrality  and  Ownership  

•  Successful  Projects  Grow  and  Evolve  un8l  …  – Apache  So[ware  Founda8on  – OSDL/Linux  Founda8on  – Eclipse  Founda8on  

Clean  IP  Encourages  Adop*on  (Outbound)  

Legal  Structures  are  Important  

•  License  (inbound/outbound)  •  Assignments  and  Contribu8on  Licenses    

•  Provenance  tracking  •  Liability  and  risk  management  

•  CommiPer  indemnifica8on  

Ques*ons?  

Stephen  R.  Walli  

Technical  Director,  Outercurve  Founda8on  hPp://www.outercurve.org  

[email protected]  hPp://stephesblog.blogs.com    (Once  More  unto  the  Breach)  

hPp://www.networkworld.com/community/walli  

@stephenrwalli