The annual OSPO study examines the prevalence and outcomes of Open Source Progam Offices and similar OSS Initiatives across sectors, including the key benefits, value provided, and challenges ahead.
OSPOs Become Mainstream In 2023, the adoption of OSPO and OSS initiatives witnessed a 32% increase compared to 2022. The key findings cover a broad range of topics, from how OSPOs are addressing security concerns and supporting open source sustainability, to enhancing software best practices within organizations.
Over the past six months, the Steering Committee members have been diligently assisting the TODO project in its stewardship and strategic goals. This summary aims to provide a concise overview of all the topic discussions and areas of work that the Steering Committee and the program manager have been focusing on during this period. For public disclosure, we include a summary of the monthly meeting notes taken.
Steering Committee Achievements Update TODO charters and build Ambassador Program After months of hard work and discussions, the Steering Committee has developed a new version of the TODO charters.
The OSPO book project is one of the most recent initiatives hosted under the OSPOlogy repo. Whether you contribute to new chapters, review existing PRs, include new book terms in the glossary.md, or make translations into your native language, there are many ways to become an active member of this community.
The OSPO Book Project has improved its documentation to help new contributors get started in the project. Together, we can build a more inclusive and complete book that serves as a baseline for Open Source Program Offices in organizations.
The TODO Group and Linux Foundation Research with the support of Alibaba, CHAOSS, CyberTrust, Dynatrace, GitHub, InnerSource Commons, Kaiyuanshe, Open Infrastructure Foundation, Open Source Initiative, OpenChain, OpenSSF, and Salesforce, are conducting the 2023 survey edition as part of a research project on the prevalence and outcomes of open source programs and similar open source initiatives operating across the globe. 🧩 What’s New in the 2023 edition? This year the survey
Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) are becoming increasingly prevalent across various sectors, regions, and organizational sizes. In 2020, the TODO Group community released the first version of OSPOdefinition.org, to provide a common lexicon for describing open source programs. As the OSPO becomes a more widely recognized term in different sectors, the TODO community recognizes the need to update the traditional OSPO definition to reflect current trends and be more inclusive.
If you’re one of the people affected by layoffs, there are a couple of resources you should know about. The TODO community has specific channels and ways to keep people informed of the most recent job offerings related to OSPOs and Open Source in organizations:
The OSPONews newsletter has an OSPO Jobs section where active open source or OSPO related job positions are shared on a monthly basis. You can also look at past issues of the newsletter.
We are thrilled to announce a new maintainer of the OSPOlogy project.
📚 About OSPOlogy Repo OSPOlogy is a TODO Group initiative that hosts the study and open community communication to discuss the status of open source program offices across regions. OSPOlogy is also the home of projects like the OSPO Book, OSPO MindMap, OSPONews or the OSPO Model. We are excited about the future of the OSPOlogy project and look forward to continuing to work together with the OSPOlogy Contibutors, TODO Group Members, OSPO Associates and wider open source community to promote open source education and best practices within organizations worldwide.
Why are Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) valuable from a business perspective? That’s the question addressed in the latest report from the TODO Group. The study explores the different value propositions of OSPOs and shares recommendations and provide insights that helps to to understand, measure, and communicate their value to stakeholders, regulators, and other staff members within the organization.
It draws on perspectives from OSPO and open source leaders from Europe, Asia, and North America in a variety of industries, including two public universities.
We are thrilled to announce the latest updates to the OSPO Mind Map project. Thanks to our community, OSPOlogy contributors have created Chinese and Japanese versions of the OSPO Mind Map. This interactive visual representation of an Open Source Program Office’s (OSPO) responsibilities, roles, behavior, and team size within an organization helps OSPO practitioners and others engaging with OSPO roles understand the different elements of an OSPO and how it can be structured.
The TODO Group, together with Linux Foundation Research, is conducting a survey as part of a research project on the prevalence and outcomes of open source programs among different organizations across the globe. Open source program offices (OSPOs) help set open source strategies, policies and processes to streamline open source operations within organizations. Since 2018, the TODO Group has conducted surveys to assess the state of open source programs worldwide (all raw data, questionnaire, results and insights are available to everyone in the OSPO Survey Repo).
We are excited to announce the goals for the Employee Open Source Engagement Working Group within TODO Group for 2023. The working group is composed of open source representatives from various companies (small, medium and large), as well as open source enthusiasts involved in different projects, who are passionate about open source and want to encourage more employee engagement in open source projects.
The primary goal of this working group is to create a comprehensive guide that documents different models for incentivizing and appreciating employees to contribute to open source.
We are thrilled to announce some exciting updates and new resources for OSPOlogyLive 2023. As you may know, OSPOlogyLive is a series of interactive micro-conferences in Europe that connect open source program office (OSPO) professionals and open source peers involved in several open source projects and communities from both local and international spheres. These micro-conferences are designed as interactive lectures and breakout rooms t hat aim to foster discussions and connections among attendees.
Takeaways from the first OSPOlogyLive Share & Learn in 2023 OSPOlogyLive Netherlands was full of insightful discussions and contributions around open source strategy documentation guidelines, main blockers to open source adoption in the public sector, Open Source Program Office (OSPO) key metrics, minimum viable OSPO pattern definition, and InnerSource best practices to ease open source adoption.
About OSPOlogyLive Share & Learn OSPOlogyLive Share & Learn is a collaborative space that brings together local and global open source specialists from different organizations and/or open source projects to discuss Open Source Program Offices (OSPO) best practices for open source strategy, policies management, governance, and more.
This past year has been full of challenges and opportunities. TODO Group pursued its mission of helping Open Source Program Office adoption, education, and success within organizations across sectors and regions. The project launched many exciting new initiatives, refined existing ones, and received contributions from open source leaders and OSPO practitioners worldwide.
In this post, the TODO Group would like to appreciate and highlight some of the achievements and contributions done in 2022 by its community.
TODO strategic goals and project governance is overseen by a Steering Committee elected on an annual basis. We are pleased to share that several individuals will be joining the TODO Steering Committee in 2023. Their addition will help to continue to TODO’s mission in Open Source Program Office’s knowledge-sharing and adoption worldwide.
Welcome to New Steering Committee Members TODO woudld like to congratulate and welcome to the Steering Committee three new members.
The TODO Group is proud to announce the fifth annual Open Source Program Management Survey results that examines the prevalence and outcomes of open source programs, including the key benefits and barriers to adoption worldwide. We have open sourced all of our survey results, raw data and graphics in the dedicated repo.
People can also download the report as PDF
🚀 Key Findings More Structured OSPOs Adoption of OSPOs or similar programs has risen to 50%, the highest level in 5 years.
At TODO we are taking a short break from our monthly community calls during August. The good news is that this might be a great chance to start learning something new from a community! These are some of the most popular resources powered by TODO, helpful sources of information to read through and maybe be inspired by open source leaders involved in OSPOs.
1️⃣ OSPOlogy, the study of OSPOs Recorded videos that share real OSPO Stories and topics that matter.
As more and more organizations adopt open source initiatives and/or seek to mature their involvement in open source, the OSPO movement is expanding across industries and regions of all types and sizes. Due to the wide range of responsibilities and ways to operate, OSPO professionals usually find it difficult when it comes to implementing OSPO best practices, policies, processes, or tools for their open source management efforts. To help people with these challenges, the TODO Group is introducing a new framework for in-person OSPO workshops.
TODO Group is proud to announce a new OSPO Mind Map version release. The mind map shows a Open Source Program Office's (OSPO) responsibilities, roles, behavior, and team size within an organization. This post highlights the major improvements done by the community in this new version of the OSPO Mind Map.
Updates on Responsibilities section OSPO Mind Map Responsibilities section has new OSPO-specific topics and different sub-sections defined, including:
📘 Develop and Execute Open Source Strategy
June 10, 2022
by
Ana Jimenez Santamaria
(The Linux Foudation)
On June, Thursday 9th I had the honor to be one of the panelists in the expert-led discussion OSPOs in action. The audience was able to learn from VMware, Comcast, Porsche, and Bloomberg's open source leaders to better understand the value of the OSPO, and where to get started. The aim of this article is to encapsulate my key learnings taken from the webinar, to help the open source community on their OSPO journey.
March 23, 2022
by
Josep Prat
(Aiven)
This time around we feature Josep Prat (@jlprat) from Aiven on how to convince your manager to start an OSPO at your company.
Recently, I was asked by an ex-colleague to explain how they could convince management to create an OSPO at their company. This is a very interesting question, with several possible answers, that I think deserves a proper write down. Here’s my view on the matter:
One Size Doesn’t Fit All First of all, you need to find out which kind of Open Source Program Office you want/need.
The TODO Group, together with Linux Foundation Research, is conducting a survey as part of a research project on the prevalence and outcomes of open source programs among different organizations across the globe.
Open source program offices (OSPOs) help set open source strategies and improve an organization’s software development practices. Since 2018, the TODO Group has conducted surveys to assess the state of open source programs across the industry. Today, we are pleased to announce the launch of the 2022 edition featuring additional questions to add value to the community.
More than a couple of decades into the OSPO movement, the role of the OSPO and similar open source initiatives have grown to become a central source of expertise and a strong voice in developing and implementing technology strategy at the world’s forward-thinking companies. The TODO Group, in collaboration with Linux Foundation Research, is pleased to release a new whitepaper, The Evolution of the Open Source Program Office. We hope this work provides guidance and a way to better frame and visualize the OSPO ecosystem complexity and provide a roadmap to ease OSPO planning and adoption
TODO Steering Committee is composed of global Open Source leaders and OSPO professionals from a diverse range of industries. Now that the 2021 election has been completed, we are proud to introduce the new Steering Committee members for 2022:
Ashley Wolf - GitHub Dawn Foster - VMware Shilla Saebi - Comcast Stephen Augustus - Cisco Stephen Jacobs - RIT Thomas Steenbergen - EPAM VM (Vicky) Brasseur - Wipro Meet the Steering Commitee Here is a short bio from each of the 2022 TODO Steering Committee representatives.
In 2021, we’ve seen a growing number of organizations across all sizes and sectors (both private and public) investing in Open Source Programs more than ever. This blog post captures the 2021 TODO important milestones and OSPO trends in 2022.
Introduction OSPO growth requires bigger efforts on education and support from the open-source communities. At TODO Group, we’ve been focused on continuing to expand OSPO adoption worldwide and providing support and guidance to the broader community, building new networking spaces such as OSPOCon or OSPOlogy, investing in OSPO research like our yearly Survey, or bringing monthly updates about OSPO trends through OSPONews.
Goldman Sachs joins the TODO Group as part of launching an Open Source Program Office (OSPO), to accelerate its investment in open source and innovation.
Goldman Sachs has been contributing to open source for nearly a decade, finding new ways to advance in their Open Source journey. In August, Goldman Sachs formalized its commitment to open source and created an Open Source Program Office (OSPO).
As we have seen work well at other companies, having a single team responsible for the open source strategy will allow us to accelerate and deepen our investment in open source.
November 24, 2021
by
Ana Jimenez Santamaria
(The Linux Foudation)
Open source initiatives provide companies with proven, successful models to collaborate with other companies, create new technologies, and support the development of new technical communities. Companies across many industries are creating Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) composed of highly skilled individuals to help them drive for a leadership position in open source projects and gain a critical footprint in this external R&D ecosystem.
How can OSPOs work as a pattern of innovation to gain sustainable competitive advantage?
A critical element of any business or product strategy that includes the use of open source software is the reinvestment of resources into the projects on which that strategy relies. This can lead to the creation of open source commercial ecosystems, which contribute to the viability and long-term sustainability for those projects. However, before a company will invest resources it must first have confidence in a project’s future prospects such that they’re willing to build commercial dependencies upon it.
October 14, 2021
by
Ana Jimenez Santamaria
(The Linux Foudation)
Leading figures from Open Source gathered at OSPOCon and OSPOCon Europe to discuss the new OSPO Era challenges and ways to help the Open Source movement
OSPOCon has demonstrated to be a key networking space to learn and connect with OSPO professionals across organizations: Attendants were able to learn from open source leaders who shared their experiences on ways to establish and run an OSPO, the status of emerging open source initiatives raising within organizations across industries, as well as the evolution of OSPOs worldwide.
OSPO Survey Results 2021 The TODO Group is happy to announce the fourth annual Open Source Program Management Survey results that examines the prevalence and outcomes of open source programs, including the key benefits and barriers to adoption. We have open sourced all of our survey results and graphics.
Key Findings The findings indicated there are many opportunities ahead to educate companies about how OSPOs can benefit them.
OSPO Structure: Professionalization continued among OSPOs, with 58% of those programs formally structured, up from 54% the previous year.
When it comes to talent management, OSPO professionals appear highly specialized, or their job role seems difficult to categorize into traditional definitions. In fact, one of the many challenges OSPO initiatives are facing is finding the right ways to proactively help staff members plan their career advancement strategy.
Today, the TODO Group launches a new OSPO guide to help open-source programs improve their career development. The guide covers:
How to build a sustainable and rewarding career path for OSPO employees
The TODO group is proud to announce OSPOlogy: A set of OSPO resources made up of monthly meetings, OSPO news, and open discussions with the aim to study the status of Open Source Program Offices. Do you know what’s best? These new resources are open to everyone!
Why launch OSPOlogy? What can the community expect from this initiative? How can they get involved? Keep reading to learn more.
Why launching OSPOlogy?
The TODO Group, together with Linux Foundation Research and The New Stack, is conducting a survey as part of a research project on the prevalence and outcomes of open source programs among different organizations across the globe. OSPOs help set open source strategies and improve an organization’s software development practices. Since 2018, the TODO Group has conducted surveys to assess the state of open source programs across the industry. Today,
The TODO Group would like announce the sharing of a modular OSPO 101 course:
All the content is modularized and licensed under CC-BY 4.0 for your usage: https://github.com/todogroup/ospo101
We would like to thank Guy Martin for helping seed the initial content for the course. The course was converted to friendly markdown format by the TODO Group community, including contributions from Chris Aniszczyk and Greg Back.
If you’re interested in starting an open source program or collaborating with your peers in open source program management, please consider joining the TODO Group!
The TODO Group would like announce first OSPOCon:
The CFP is open and closes Sunday, June 13 at 11:59pm PDT.
If you’re interested in starting an open source program or collaborating with your peers in open source program management, please consider joining the TODO Group!
Open source program offices have become a best practice for companies that rely on open source technologies. As open source program offices have spread, there has been increased interest in applying this best practice in non-corporate contexts. Cities, universities, and other non-corporate organizations are starting to see the benefits of creating a center of competency for open source.
The TODO Group is a Linux Foundation collaborative project that serves as a working group for open source program office members around the world.
The TODO Group is over 5 years old and as an organization has brought together the brightest in the field of open source program management. We have produced a variety of open source program management guides, tools, surveys and even an awesome list to advance the practice.
Today, we are formalizing our definition of what an open source program office (colloquially an OSPO) is based on our years of experience and to ensure we have a common lexicon in the industry when we describe open source programs:
The TODO Group is happy to announce the third annual Open Source Program Management Survey results that examines the prevalence and outcomes of open source programs among the Global Fortune 2000, including the key benefits and barriers to adoption. We have open sourced all of our survey results and graphics.
Key findings include:
Use of open source remains stable, and a new generation of companies are increasing their engagement with open source communities.
At Open Source Summit North America, the TODO Group will lead a virtual track featuring a variety of talks dedicated to open source program management:
Listed below are the talks from the TODO track at OSSNA:
Monday, June 20 2020 Trends in Enterprise Open Source Programs - Alex Williams, The New Stack Building a Secure, Efficient, Compliance OSS Supplychain at Scale - Tan Zhongyi (Jerry Tan), Baidu C in CRM Stands for Community: The DevRel Way - Ana Jimenez Santamaria, Bitergia Growing Participation in Your Company’s OSS Projects - Dawn Foster, VMware Growing Sustainable Contributions Through Ambassador Networks - Alison Yu, Indeed & Shilla Saebi, Comcast How (And Why) to Identify Your Critical OSS Dependencies - Julia Ferraioli, Google How to Grow Your Open Source Project and Become an Umbrella Project - John Mertic, The Linux Foundation Intelligent Open Source - Daniel Izquierdo, Bitergia & Jim Jagielski, Uber *Open Source on Purpose: Strategy, Process and Tools to Succeed - Kevin Nelson & Ben Woodring, UnitedHealth Group/Optum BoF: The CHAOSS Project: Answering Specialized Questions About Community Health and Sustainability at Scale - Sean P.
The TODO Group is happy to announce the second annual Open Source Program Management Survey results that examines the prevalence and outcomes of open source programs among the Global Fortune 2000, including the key benefits and barriers to adoption. We have open sourced all of our survey results and graphics.
Key findings include:
Adoption of open source programs and initiatives is widespread and goes beyond early adopters. More than half (52%) of the 2,700 study participants either have a formal or informal program or their company is planning to create one, which is one percentage point less than last year.
At Open Source Summit Europe, the TODO Group will lead a track featuring a variety of talks dedicated to open source program management:
Listed below are the talks from the TODO track at OSSEU:
Monday, October 28 Sustaining Global Public Goods - OSS for Social Good - Heath Arensen, UN Foundation Open Source Center Trends in Open Source Program Management from the 2019 TODO Group Survey - Alex Williams, The New Stack Panel Discussion: What’s Essential in an OSS Project Launch Playbook?
At Open Source Summit North America, the TODO Group will lead a track featuring a variety of talks dedicated to open source program management:
Listed below are the talks from the TODO track at OSSNA:
Wednesday, August 21 Metrics - When One Size Doesn’t Fit All - Carsten Jacobsen, Uber Technologies Inc. & Manrique Lopez, Bitergia The Developer Goodie Bag - Carsten Jacobsen, Uber Technologies Inc. Shifting Incentives in Open Source Participation - Craig Northway, Qualcomm Technologies Inc Navigating the Interface Between Open and Closed Source Software - Craig Peters & Lachlan Evenson, Microsoft Your Company Cares About Open Source Sustainability.
Our Open Source Program Guides cover case studies from the industries leading open source programs. We started with Comcast, Dropbox, Facebook, Microsoft, Red Hat and Salesforce, SAP, this month we’re happy to add the Uber open source program (OSPO):
Uber Uber is one of the best-known disruptors in the digital age. Its business model famously separated transportation services from the traditional underlying infrastructure with an app-based model offering on-demand and multimodal options.
Our Open Source Program Guides cover case studies from the industries leading open source programs. We started with Comcast, Dropbox, Facebook, Microsoft, Red Hat and Salesforce, SAP, this month we’re happy to add the Uber open source program (OSPO):
Uber Uber is one of the best-known disruptors in the digital age. Its business model famously separated transportation services from the traditional underlying infrastructure with an app-based model offering on-demand and multimodal options.
Our Open Source Program Guides cover case studies from the industries leading open source programs. We started with Comcast, Dropbox, Facebook, Microsoft, Red Hat and Salesforce, this month we’re happy to add the SAP open source program (OSPO):
SAP SAP has been working with open source for decades and has now established an open source program office (OSPO) to further formalize the coordination of its open source activities and expand its engagement with the open source communities.
The TODO Group is thrilled to announce the first Open Source Program Management Survey for 2018 (in partnership with The New Stack) that examines the prevalence and outcomes of open source programs among the Global Fortune 2000, including the key benefits and barriers to adoption. We have open sourced all of our survey results and graphics.
Key findings include:
Open source use has become commonplace among tech and non-tech companies alike with 72% of companies frequently using open source for non-commercial or internal reasons and 55% using open source for commercial products.
Last year, the TODO Group published an initial set of guides focused on the art of open source program management. This year, we plan to continue to update and publish new guides to help our peers in industry to scale out their open source programs and learn from our lesson. Today we are happy to publish a guide on what happens when you are faced with setting an open source strategy for your organization.
Almost every developer uses open source code. But not every organization has an open source policy or a formal program to manage how it is used or produced. The TODO Group has partnered with The Newstack to build the first ever open source programs survey.
Some of the questions we ask include:
If your organization does not have an open source program, why not? What are the challenges and benefits of an open source program?
Last year, the TODO Group published an initial set of guides focused on the art of open source program management. This year, we plan to continue to update and publish new guides to help our peers in industry to scale out their open source programs and learn from our lesson. Today we are happy to publish a guide on what happens when you are faced with building leadership in your open source community.
Last year we launched our Open Source Program Guides and as part of that launch, we mentioned we will be actively publishing open source program case studies. We started with Comcast, Dropbox, Facebook, Microsoft, Red Hat and Salesforce, this month we’re happy to add the Capital One open source program:
Capital One: Open Source in a Regulated Environment Lessons Learned on Our Open Source Journey at Capital One Most people know Capital One as one of the largest credit card companies in the U.
Last year we launched our Open Source Program Guides and as part of that launch, we mentioned we will be actively publishing open source program case studies. We started with Comcast, Dropbox, Facebook, Red Hat and Salesforce, this month we’re happy to add the Microsoft open source program:
The Open Source Program at Microsoft: How Open Source Thrives Microsoft is now an accepted big player in the open source space, but just a few years ago such a role for the software giant, seemed inconceivable.
We have decided to open up our Slack community to everyone to increase knowledge sharing. You can join our Slack community here.
We look forward to having conversations with everyone and spreading the best practices of open source program management.
Last year we launched our Open Source Program Guides and as part of that launch, we mentioned we will be actively publishing open source program case studies. We started with Comcast, Dropbox, Facebook and Salesforce, this month we’re happy to add the Red Hat open source program:
Red Hat Open Source and Standards Team: How Red Hat Measures Open Source Success Red Hat is, by its very nature, a deviation from the norm in this series of profiles.
Last year, the TODO Group published an initial set of guides focused on the art of open source program management. This year, we plan to continue to update and publish new guides to help our peers in industry to scale out their open source programs and learn from our lesson. Today we are happy to publish a guide on what happens when you are faced with winding down an open source project.
Last year we launched our Open Source Program Guides and as part of that launch, we mentioned we will be actively publishing open source program case studies. We started with Comcast, Dropbox, Facebook and Salesforce, this month we’re happy to add the Oath open source program:
Oath For seven years and counting, Gil Yehuda, Senior Director of Open Source at Oath Inc. (which owns the Yahoo and AOL brands), has led the open source program at Yahoo.
A little over a few months we launched our Open Source Program Guides and as part of that launch, we mentioned we will be actively publishing open source program case studies. We started with Comcast, Facebook and Salesforce, this month we’re happy to add the Dropbox open source program:
Dropbox The open source program at Dropbox was initially just a mailing list, where some interested engineers wanted to open source projects and develop with open source.
A couple of months we launched our Open Source Program Guides and as part of that launch, we mentioned we will be actively publishing open source program case studies. We started with Comcast, Facebook and Salesforce, this month we’re happy to add the Autodesk open source program:
Autodesk Autodesk is undergoing a company-wide shift to open source and inner source. And that’s on top of the culture change that both development methods require.
Last month we launched our Open Source Program Guides and as part of that launch, we mentioned we will be actively publishing open source program case studies. We started with Comcast and Salesforce, this month we’re happy to add the Facebook open source program:
Facebook Facebook’s open source team was “formally” created in 2009, but the company has built with open source from its inception. Facebook.com was originally built on top of the LAMP (Linux/ Apache/ MySQL/ PHP) stack.
Last March we held a TODO Group track at Open Source Leadership Summit focused entirely on sharing best practices for businesses managing and building out open source programs. More than a dozen open source program leads and other leaders from companies shared their tips and best practices at the event.
Furthermore in the last year or so, we have seen companies like AWS build out an open source program via @AWSOpen and even companies like VMWare hired their first Chief Open Source Officer.
We recently held a TODO Tools Working Group hackathon at Microsoft. There were about a dozen people from half a dozen different organizations. We ended up with three groupings of hacking around: repository linting, GitHub portal and GitHub data/crawling. Below is a summary of the work that was done and some next steps.
Repo Linter (https://github.com/todogroup/repolinter) Repo Linter is a a simple linter to check for open source quality: https://github.com/todogroup/repolinter. We initially evaluated using https://github.
Last month, the TODO Group led a track at the Open Source Leadership Summit (OSLS) which featured a variety of talks dedicated to open source program management:
Listed below are some of slides from the TODO track at the OSLS:
The True Cost of Open Source by Patrick Steele-Idem (eBay) M&A Deal Diligence and its Open Source Benefits by Nithya Ruff and Gil Yehuda How Walmart is Building a Successful Open Source Culture by Andrew Mitry and Megan Rossetti (Walmart) We’re from Capital One and we’re here to help: the experience of contributing to open source at a large corporation by Jonathan Bodner (Capital One) Make your Corporate CLA easy to use, please!
The TODO Group will be hosting a formal open source office track at the Open Source Leadership Summit in Tahoe next year.
We hosted a track last year and encourage the wider community to submit your proposals. We are especially interested in proposals that examine the structure of existing open source programs, what has helped those programs succeed (or fail!), how company culture has shaped those programs, and any lessons learned along the way.
Gil Yehuda (@gyehuda) had an opportunity to keynote at LinuxCon Japan 2016 about the rise of open source program offices, the presentation is provided below:
See the presentation
If you’re interested in joining the TODO Group, please reach out over Twitter!
June 10, 2016
by
Nithya Ruff
(SanDisk)
More than ever, traditional companies are embracing open source and find that it can get out of control if they don’t have a coordinated plan to manage it. And what do I mean by a traditional company? Companies that are pre-open source (or born before 1995). Also companies that are not in the hardware or software product space, but more in the services space – financial, telecom, healthcare etc.
These companies often do not have open source development models or knowledge in their DNA.
May 25, 2016
by
Benjamin VanEvery
(Box)
I ran into several folks this past week at OSCON who expressed a keen interest in creating a dedicated role for Open Source at their respective companies. So what was stopping them? One simple thing: every single one of them was struggling to define exactly what that role means. Instinctively we all have a feeling of what an employee dedicated to Open Source might do, but when it comes time to write it down or try to convince payroll, it can be challenging.
Note: This blog post and interview is cross-posted on Linux.com
Starting an open source program office is a growing trend among companies that leverage open source software in their business strategies.
Led by an open source program officer, open source offices can range in size from one or two advocates on an engineering team to an entirely separate R&D division. But the goal is the same: to strategically address common challenges companies face when adopting open source software.
Last week, the TODO Group led a track at the Collaboration Summit which featured a variety of talks dedicated to open source program management.
today we are happy to host the TODO (open source program management) track at #lfcollab today, we'll be tweeting! pic.twitter.com/h8zOxn4D9F
— TODO Group (#OSPO) (@todogroup) March 30, 2016 Listed below are some of slides from TODO members given at the Collaboration Summit:
Gil Yehuda (@gyehuda) runs the Open Source Programs Office (OSPO) at Yahoo and presented a talk highlighting some of the governance issues facing corporate based open source program offices.
Yesterday, the TODO Group announced new members (Autodesk, CapitalOne, Netflix, and SanDisk) and moving to the Linux Foundation as a Collaborative Project.
We are excited as this move will help formalize the group legally (see our charter) and allow us to scale the group with additional members. The Linux Foundation provides a great home for us and is a very trusted host with collaborative projects such as the NodeJS Foundation, Open Container Initiative and LetsEncrypt.
No matter the size of the organization, running an Open Source Programs Office requires staying on top of several things at once. While the processes between organizations might vary, many of run into a common set of needs and have subsequently developed a set of tools to manage corporate scale open source needs. As part of the TODO Group, we have started sharing those tools with each other and the open source community at large.
Growing a successful open source project takes more than code; it takes a healthy community where contributors can engage in deep conversations with respect. A code of conduct can be one important tool in helping a community uphold its own values.
Last year, the TODO Group explored building a code of conduct template. Our goal was to share our experiences with each other, and encourage other communities to consider similar principles when building their open source projects.
July 20, 2015
by
Brandon Keepers
(GitHub)
Update: We will not be continuing work on the open code of conduct. See our followup post for more information.
We believe open source communities should be a welcoming place for all participants. Through our experiences within the TODO Group, we strongly believe that a code of conduct helps set the ground rules for participation in communities and helps build a culture of respect. By adopting and honoring a code of conduct, communities can communicate their values, set expectations and outline a process for dealing with unwelcome behavior when it arises.
July 15, 2015
by
Benjamin VanEvery
(Box)
This time around we feature Benjamin VanEvery (@bvanevery) from Box on how a company new to open source gets started developing an Open Source Office. The goal of this post is to shed some light on starting up an Open Source Office by sharing experiences at Box.
Several past blog articles have focused on why each of our companies got involved in open source. Each has been enlightening to read through and get a glimpse of what open source means to the individual companies how it impacts their cultures.
We had an opportunity to speak at OSCON 2016, the slides are provided below:
Thank you to everyone who attended our session and asked questions! If you’re interested in joining the TODO Group, please reach out over Twitter!
See a follow up blog from Ben VanEvery about his experience starting the Open Source Office at Box.
April 2, 2015
by
Gianugo Rabellino
(Microsoft)
This is the next in our series of blog posts from TODO Group members, explaining why each company is committed to open source software. This week, we feature Gianugo Rabellino (@gianugo), Sr. Director, Open Source Communities at Microsoft Open Technologies.
Five years ago I was flying back from my interview at Microsoft and jotting down a pros and cons list. I ended up focusing on one item. It was on both columns and it was staring at me.
March 24, 2015
by
Chris Aniszczyk
(CNCF)
This is the fifth in a series of blog posts from TODO Group members, explaining why each company is committed to open source software. This week, we feature Chris Aniszczyk (@cra), who’s in charge of open source at Twitter.
Since Twitter’s early days, open source has been a pervasive part of our engineering culture. Every Tweet you send and receive touches a plethora of open source software on its journey from our Linux-based infrastructure to your device.
March 17, 2015
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Brandon Keepers
(GitHub)
This is the fourth in a series of blog posts from TODO Group members, explaining why each company is committed to open source software. This week, we feature Brandon Keepers (@bkeepers), who is heading up the open source efforts at GitHub.
From the very beginning, GitHub has been about open source. Scratching the itch of better code collaboration turned into a company built on and for open source; from the philosophies that founded the company, to the servers running the infrastructure, to the languages and libraries we use to build applications, to the millions of public repositories hosted on them.
March 10, 2015
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Benjamin VanEvery
(Box)
This is the third in a series of blog posts from TODO Group members, explaining why each company is committed to open source software. This week, we feature Benjamin VanEvery (@bvanevery) and Nicholas Zakas (@slicknet), who oversee the open source activities at Box.
We see running our open source program as being a logical extension to the type of work Boxers do every day. Like many tech companies, our technology stack includes open source projects.
March 3, 2015
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Gil Yehuda
(Verizon Media)
This is the second in a series of blog posts from TODO Group members, explaining why each company is committed to open source software. This week, we feature Gil Yehuda (@gyehuda), who’s in charge of open source at Yahoo!.
Since my company does not sell software, the choice to open source code is rather simple. Consider the alternative: keeping code a proprietary secret. Keeping secrets is expensive. Proprietary code needs to be maintained as other code dependencies often create the need to tweak things.
February 24, 2015
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Dion Almaer
(Walmart Labs)
Over the coming weeks, we are publishing a series of blog posts from TODO Group members, explaining why each company has decided to run programs to publish, use, and improve open source software - and the benefits that result. First up, Dion Almaer (@dalmaer) with Walmart Labs’ perspective.
Why would a company spend resources on an open source program, and why is it really needed? These are great questions, and my point of view has probably changed in some ways over time.
November 7, 2014
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Nicholas C. Zakas
(Box)
A little over a month ago we announced the formation of the TODO Group, a group of companies coming together to collaborate on practices, tools, and other ways to run successful and effective open source projects and programs. The response we received was overwhelmingly positive, and we’ve been working hard since that time to clarify our goals and objectives as well as determine a path forward that includes as many companies as possible.
