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). Today, we are pleased to announce the launch of the 2023 edition.
The 2023 survey will generate insights into the following areas:
- Adoption and impact of OSPOs across sectors and industries, including perceived benefits and challenges of open source offices and trends in hiring for open source development.
- Balancing openness and control in OSPOs, including strategies for encouraging contribution and participation, providing education on open source best practices, and scaling open source operations within organizations.
- Security and sustainability of open source ecosystems, including how OSPOs contribute to building more secure software and software supply chains, and how they enable long-term sustainable ecosystems by aligning organizational goals with open source goals and engaging stakeholders, teams, and executives.
- Industry or geographical segmentation, including additional survey questions to gain insight into specific regions or industries (e.g., OSPOs in finance, OSPOs in Japan).
The topic areas listed above are based on feedback that community members provided throughout the year, whether on GitHub, at conferences, or in meetings. The target sample for this survey is OSPO leaders.
The results of this survey can help open source professionals gain a better understanding of the status and role of OSPOs within organizations. The target readership is likely to be involved in open source at some level and has a direct relationship with OSPO roles, either as a member of an OSPO or as someone who works closely with an OSPO. The survey is also relevant for those who are likely to have a close relationship with an OSPO in the future, such as managers, executives, policy makers and other decision-makers involved in open source initiatives.
🙋♀️ Become a partner in this research!
We are seeking help from organizations to facilitate survey outreach, generate sample, and maximize impact of this research through partnership. There is NO monetary commitment.
Partners support the project through:
- Sharing the survey to their networks via main communication channels
- Promoting the survey and final deliverables on social media channels
- Partners also have the opportunity to engage with the third core topic listed above and suggest a segmentation that they are interested in, and work with the survey development team to design survey questions. This would involve a monetary commitment.
As a partner, you will be included as an active collaborator in the survey. Both organizations and open source projects are welcome to become partners for the next OSPO survey. This includes, but is not limited to, corporations, foundations, non-profits, government agencies, universities, and representatives from open source projects.
To participate, please contact hcarter@linuxfoundation.org.
📆 Timeline:
- April 2023: kick-off and survey development
- May 2023: survey in field
- May-June 2023: data analysis and presentation of results
- June-July 2023: report drafting
- August 2023: report production
- September 2023: publication