Collaboration within open source projects is becoming increasingly important for companies, but it can be difficult to strike the right balance between the needs of the company and the open source project. This can create friction and put significant pressure on employees who participate on behalf of their company when the needs of the individual, the company, and the community are not aligned. This talk will focus on ways to create this alignment between individuals, companies, and the community to help all of us be successful together.

1. ©2022 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
How to Be a Good
Corporate Citizen
in Open Source
stackconf Berlin - July 2022
Dr. Dawn M. Foster
Director of OSS Community Strategy
fosterd@vmware.com fastwonderblog.com
Open Source at VMware @vmwopensource
blogs.vmware.com/opensource

2. @geekygirldawn
©2022 VMware, Inc.
• Dynamics of collaboration: individuals, companies,
and communities.
• Contribution Strategy and Plans
• Tips for being a good corporate citizen in open
source projects.
• Resources and Final Thoughts
2
Agenda
Photo by Marco Verch - CC BY 2.0

3. ©2022 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn 3
whoami
• Geek, traveler, reader
• 20+ yr tech career focused on
community & open source
(Intel, Puppet, Scale Factory, …)
• OpenUK Board, CHAOSS Board and
Maintainer, TODO Group Steering
• CNCF TAG Contrib Strategy co-chair
• PhD from the University of Greenwich
focused on Linux kernel collaboration
Photos by Mom, Josh Bancroft, Don Park

4. ©2022 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Image by the CNCF CC BY-NC 2.0
Collaboration in OSS Projects:
individuals, companies, and communities

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Make contributions
and earn
leadership positions
5
Individuals
Image by the CNCF CC BY-NC 2.0

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Employees contribute as
individuals, but
on their company’s behalf
6
Companies
Image by the CNCF CC BY-NC 2.0

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Kubernetes CNCF CC BY 4.0
Community comes before company or individual needs
7
Community = People

8. ©2022 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Your organization needs to
balance individual, company,
and community needs
8
Balance
Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

9. ©2022 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash
Contribution Strategy and Plans

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Align with business
goals to highlight
importance and impact
Photo by Anastasia Petrova on Unsplash
10
Contribution
Strategy and Plans

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Focus on strategic projects
with the biggest impact
to your company
11
Which Projects?
Image by Thomas Hawk
CC BY-NC 2.0

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Find or hire people
who want to contribute
12
Staffing
Image by the CNCF CC BY-NC 2.0

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Guidelines and processes
should make it easy to contribute
Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash
13
Guidelines

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Define success criteria
and data required
to measure it
https://chaoss.community
14
Measure
Success

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Image by Thomas Hawk CC BY-NC 2.0
Making Contributions as a Good
Corporate Citizen in OSS

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Lurk and understand
before starting with a
small contribution
Image by Filip Maljković CC BY-SA
16
Getting Started

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Avoid getting defensive
and prepare to iterate
on feedback
17
Learn from Feedback

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Discuss changes first
and break them into
smaller contributions
Photo by Christine on Unsplash
18
Work with the
Community

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Attend events and
get to know people
Image by The Linux Foundation CC BY
19
Relationships

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Reduces your work
and benefits the
community
20
Upstream
Your Patches

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Don’t expect someone
else to maintain a
large contribution
21
Maintenance
Expectations

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Prepare to maintain it
over the long-term
and build community
Image by C. Watts CC BY 22
Open Sourcing
Your Software

23. @geekygirldawn
©2020 VMware, Inc. 23
Resources
Linux Foundation’s TODO Group
https://todogroup.org/guides/
CNCF Contributor Strategy TAG Docs & Templates
https://contribute.cncf.io/maintainers/
https://github.com/cncf/project-template
The Open Source Way Guidebook
https://github.com/theopensourceway/guidebook/
Photo by Vicente - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

24. @geekygirldawn
©2022 VMware, Inc.
Participation in OSS
communities impacts
your organization’s brand.
Strive to make it a
positive impact.
24
Final Thoughts
Photo by

25. ©2022 VMware, Inc. @geekygirldawn
Dr. Dawn M. Foster
fosterd@vmware.com
fastwonderblog.com
Open Source at VMware
blogs.vmware.com/opensource
@vmwopensource
25
Thank You!
Photo by Thangaraj Kumaravel - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0