4. Enterprise support is key
● Many organizations won’t consider using
FOSS solutions without it
● Allows key contributors to earn a living while
building the projects they love
● Provides stable releases for everyone
6. Is VC money helping?
● There is nothing wrong with Venture
Capitalists
● Without their investment, many projects
would never have come as far as they have
7. Investors & customers want different
things
● Customers: “I just want someone here who
can make sure things are okay”
● Investors: “Be a product company for a
higher valuation”
8. FOSS enterprise offerings
● ?aaS
● Monitoring
● Production tooling
● Support contracts
● Commercial licenses
● Indemnity and warranties
● Minimal services
9. Competition for revenue
● Each FOSS company is competing for finite
budget
● Meanwhile, large traditional ISVs have
massive legacy contracts
10. Impact
● FOSS enterprise support companies cannot
focus on their communities as much as they
wish they could
● Feature roadmap has to support the
enterprise customer
● The community feels left out
11. FOSS companies must grow
● This can only come from providing what
customers want: SERVICES
● FOSS companies should sell services until
they reach profitability and can fund the
enterprise features existing customers
actually want
12. Global systems integrators
● A long-standing point of contention between
FOSS creators and the SI community
● They must invest in training their people
● They have the vendor relationships
● How do we incentivize them?
● Boutique services firms are the best channel
for help, can they be absorbed in a
meaningful way into the FOSS company for
scale?
13. Wampler’s conjecture
● What is the impact if we can’t change?
● Will mature OSS only come from companies
who open source their own libraries
● Who wins?
15. Winter is coming
● Several large corporations will vie for control
of Scala and other critical path FOSS
projects
● Scala Center is insurance for the community
16. We need a way to support FOSS
● But what about other projects and
languages?
● Some beautiful projects are trending poorly
in adoption and support
● Some have the support but no longer focus
on the community
● Some have lost enterprise support, possibly
stunting adoption growth
17. Comparison of support
Language Academia Community Corporate Enterprise Government
Scala
Clojure
Go
Groovy ?
Java
Javascript ?
Pony
18. But what about the ecosystem?
● Key projects must be sponsored
● Beyond consulting dollars for creators
● Hiring the creators and keeping them to
themselves is not the answer
19. Are coalitions the key?
● If so, how do we fund them?
● Do we become limited to only supporting
their offerings?
● What about high-value independents?
● The enterprise doesn’t want to have to
manage infinite support contracts
● Is it enough?
20. Can we create a site to help?
● Online checkout via a corporate-friendly
funding site
● Give recognition and some level of priority to
those who support
● Allows project owners to hire help and
remain community focused
22. Vendor Management
● Large corporations need to have approved
vendors
● Global SIs and big vendors have these
relationships in place
● We may still need a bridge
23. We need to support the ecosystem
● Scala’s success is not just because of
money, but also because of the work of the
community
● Enterprises must support the projects upon
which they depend
● We must work together to help them do so