My talk from OSCON 2012 in Portland, OR http://www.oscon.com/oscon2012/public/schedule/detail/23398 Before we had Internet-sized bandwidth on which to collaborate around software, traditional software business was a simple pipeline. R&D delivered product into the pipe. Marketing delivered messages. Sales and marketing managed and qualified leads through the pipeline and if the product solved a customer problem properly, a market was made and you could measure the profits. With the rise of the Internet collaborative development communities formed around FOSS licenses. Many have tried to create businesses around such communities, or conversely create their own communities as an adjunct to their business. But in the ensuing confusion of customers and community no one is ever happy. This talk offers insight into how to think about both groups differently to everyone’s benefit.

1. How Not to Confuse Your
Open Source Community
with Your Customers
Stephen R. Walli
Technical Director, Outercurve Foundation
@stephenrwalli
stephen.walli@gmail.com
Monday, 23 July, 12

2. Traditional Software Business
R&D
Product
Customer Pipeline $$$
Messages
Marketing
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Monday, 23 July, 12

3. Misconceptions about Community
R&D
Code,
Product etc.
Community
Customer Pipeline $$$
Messages
Marketing
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Monday, 23 July, 12

4. A Better Model for Community & Pipeline
R&D
Code,
etc. Product
Community
Customer Pipeline $$$
Messages
Conversations
Marketing
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5. A Better Model for Community & Pipeline
Community members build
awareness and evangelize,
Identify R&D provide expertise and trial
support, are a demonstration of
community solution viability, and provide
great inertia around your solution
Code,
What
etc. Product
Mission?
Platform &
Tools
$$$
Arch. of Deploy?
Participation
Identify
Customer
Awareness Download
& Try Train?
??? Buy
Code of
Conduct
IP
Machine
Messages
Conversations
Governance
Structure
Marketing
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6. What do you want to happen in Community
• Bug Reports? (Test/QA)
• Code? (New Innovation, Bug Fixes)
• Translations?
• Forums? (Support)
• Education? (Tutorials, How-to)
• “Plug-in” modules? (“Partners”)
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7. A Model for a Community Pipeline
Download
R&D
Install/
Configure
Code,
etc. Product
Use/
Deploy
Report
a Bug
$$$
Download
Source
Code
Build to
Known State
Messages
Conversations
Test to
Known State
Submit a
Patch
Marketing
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Monday, 23 July, 12

8. Understanding Community & Customers
Community
• Users with time but no money
• Will contribute time to solve their problems
• Look to community and project for solutions
• Need guidance and tool support
• Play by the community code of conduct
• Become technology evangelists
• Become knowledgeable experts
Customers
• They have money but little time
• They want to buy something
• Look to the product to solve their problems
• Community/project is a test for product Before we had online communities around
• May participate in community (by the rules) open source projects, tech communities
overlapped customers much more because
one needed to be a customer before one
had the interest and joined the community
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Monday, 23 July, 12

9. Understanding Community and Open Source
Pure Open
Published Software
Source
Community
Community
• Users with time but no money
• Will contribute time to solve their problems
• Look to community and project for solutions
• Need guidance and tool support
• Play by the community code of conduct
• Become technology evangelists
• Become knowledgeable experts
Traditional
Closed
Differentiated Product
Company
Customers
• They have money but little time
• They want to buy something
• Look to the product to solve their problems
• Community/project is a test for product
• May participate in community (by the rules)
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10. Understanding Community and Open Source
There is no requirement
Published Softwa
Published Sourcere
to build a community if
you publish source code
You can have a Community
community without open • Users with time but no money
• Will contribute time to solve their problems
source (e.g. MSDN) and • Look to community and project for solutions
you can have open • Need guidance and tool support
source without • Play by the community code of conduct
• Become technology evangelists
community • Become knowledgeable experts
DifferentiatedProduct
Publishing source is a
sign of strength and
confidence in your
Customers customer commitment as
• They have money but little time a company
• They want to buy something
• Look to the product to solve their problems
• Community/project is a test for product
Product
• May participate in community (by the rules)
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Monday, 23 July, 12

11. Understanding Community & Partner Programs
Community
• Users with time but no money
• Will contribute time to solve their problems
• Look to community and project for solutions
• Need guidance and tool support
• Play by the community code of conduct
• Become technology evangelists
• Become knowledgeable experts
Customers Partners
• They have money but little time • Want to grow their business
• They want to buy something • Want to complement the product
• Look to the product to solve their problems • Want to cross-sell
• Community/project is a test for product • May join the community
• May participate in community (by the rules) • MUST play by community rules
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12. Understanding Community & Foundations
Community
• Users with time but no money
• Will contribute time to solve their problems
• Look to community and project for solutions
• Need guidance and tool support
• Play by the community code of conduct
• Become technology evangelists
• Become knowledgeable experts
Members
Foundations
• Create neutral non-profit collaboration space
• Provide IP management and risk mitigation
• Provide project management expertise
• Promote the technology (marketing)
• Provide business operations
• Provide technical services &infrastructure Members
• Pay to manage the roadmap
• Share the cost of technology promotion
• Share the cost of clear IP management
• Play by the rules of membership
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13. A Model for Thinking about Foundations
• Neutral non-profit IP management machines
• Encourage corporations to contribute and adopt
–Better provenance management
–Neutral ownership
–Legal governance and bylaws
• Henrik Ingo’s Observations
–Foundations by the Numbers
–The 9 largest open source communities versus the
10th
• OpenStack and CloudStack
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14. James Dixon’s Beekeeper Model - I
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15. James Dixon’s Beekeeper Model - II
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16. Matt Aslett Evolves the Beekeeper Model
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17. The Reading List
Customers and Community
http://stephesblog.blogs.com/my_weblog/2010/05/open-source-communities-and-customers-in-pictures.html
Products versus Projects
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/foss-project-isn%E2%80%99t-necessarily-software-produ
James Dixon’s Beekeeper Model
http://jamesdixon.wordpress.com/the-bees-and-the-trees/
Henrik Ingo’s Foundation Numbers
http://openlife.cc/blogs/2010/november/how-grow-your-open-source-project-10x-and-revenues-5x
http://openlife.cc/blogs/2012/july/cloudstack-has-proof-foundations-way-create-foss-community
Blog: Once More Unto the Breach
http://stephesblog.blogs.com/
Twitter: @stephenrwalli
Email: stephen.walli@gmail.com
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18. FIN
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