A talk I gave at Open World Forum 2011, Paris. FOSS projects grow until they reach a certain size but can grow no further. FOSS Foundations enable projects to grow to reach their potential by providing the legal structures and tools to enable corporate contribution and wider adoption. This talk looks at a brief history of foundations in the FOSS space, and what tools they provide to help community projects grow.

1. FOSS
Founda*ons
Enable
Community
Growth
Stephen
R.
Walli
September
2011

2. What
is
a
Founda*on?
Founda8ons
are
non-­‐profits*
that
provide:
Legal
Structure
Business
Opera8ons
Technical
Services
*
But
they
are
s8ll
businesses

3. Founda*ons
*
But
they
are
s8ll
businesses

4. Corporate
Projects

5. Why
does
it
ma?er?
Neutrality
encourages
contribu8on
Clean
IP
encourages
adop8on
Founda8ons
act
as
community
centre-­‐of-­‐gravity

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

7. 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.)

8. Neutrality
Encourages
Contribu*on
(Inbound)

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

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

11. Clean
IP
Encourages
Adop*on
(Outbound)

12. Legal
Structures
are
Important
• License
(inbound/outbound)
• Assignments
and
Contribu8on
Licenses
• Provenance
tracking
• Liability
and
risk
management
• CommiPer
indemnifica8on

13. Ques*ons?
Stephen
R.
Walli
Technical
Director,
Outercurve
Founda8on
hPp://www.outercurve.org
swalli@outercurve.org
hPp://stephesblog.blogs.com
(Once
More
unto
the
Breach)
hPp://www.networkworld.com/community/walli
@stephenrwalli