matt asay - the community imperative - openbravo world conference 2009

Openbravo World ConferenceThe Community Imperative

Speaker: Matt Asay, VP of Business Development, Alfresco Barcelona, April 19, 2009

Open Source Rising• Market data on open-source adoption • Reasons for open-source adoption

Community Mechanics

Openbravo’s Community Outreach

Community Begins with You

Concluding Remarks

Agenda

Open source is now mainstream

Source: Gartner 2008Number of respondents = 274; Multiple responses allowed.

Survey Question: Do you use, or plan to use in the next budget year, an open-source project or product as an

alternative to commercial software?

63

54

75

15

34

53

58

27

85

73

90

2

0 20 40 60 80 100

Operating Systems

Applications Software

Infrastructure Software

None

Percentage of Respondents

Currently Using in This Budget Year Plan to Use in Next Budget Year Currently Using and Plan to Use in Next Budget Year

53-55% to adopt open-source by 2010

But what about open-source ERP adoption?

Source: Forrester, 2009

60% to adopt open-source ERP by 2010

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Lower Total Cost of Ownership

Low or Zero License Costs

Lower Total Cost of Support

Open Standards and Open Development Processes

Access to Source Code

Improved Security

Vendor Independence and Flexibility

Availability of Higher Quality Software Building Blocks

Availability of Needed Applications

Best-in-Breed SolutionsShorter development time by Using Off-the-Shelf,

Commoditized ComponentsInvestment Protection

Improved ROI Based on Current Commercial Off-the-ShelfSoftware/Application Life Cycle Costs

Availability of Pretested and Integrated Solution Stacks

Faster Time-to-Market for IT Solutions

Increased Innovation Opportunities for IT Professionals

Faster Procurement of Software

Others

Percentage of Respondents

Why open source?

Source: GartnerNumber of respondents = 274; Mean summary: Three responses allowed.

Survey Question: Select your organization’s top three most important reasons for using open-source software.

But it’s not just about cost

• “Open source software solutions will directly compete with closed-source products in all …markets.”

– 85% of enterprises currently use OSS– 45% use OSS for mission-critical

applications (Continues to grow)

• Why? – 65% say open source has sparked

innovation inside their companies – 67% … for lowered costs

• “Lower TCO and flexibility to launch and develop cost-prohibitive projects continue to be top reasons for using OSS”

– 81% … for better quality software

Sources: Gartner (2008), CIO Insight (2006), IDC (2006)

“Open source produces better software.”

7

It’s also about (lowering) risk

• Most IT projects fail

• Open source de-risks software acquisition:

– Try before you buy– Stop your subscription if the vendor

stops providing value

• Worst case:– Project dies and you’re out $xx,xxx or $xxx,xxx, not

$x,xxx,xxx

• IT project failure becomes less probabilistic and less painful

8

…In many ways, open source is working

87%

92%

86%

82%84%

82%

91%

So open source is being used in more mission-critical tasks

Open source is becoming the heart of enterprise computing

Open Source Rising

Community Mechanics• The myth of open-source community• How commercial open-source communities operate



Concluding Remarks

Agenda

11

It’s no longer about whether open source will succeed…but how (and which projects)

The real differentiator going forward is community involvement

Whether measured in terms of lines of code added or new projects,open-source growth is phenomenal

Source: Dirk Riehle, SAP

Just what is “The Community” supposed to do?

Community mostly happens at the periphery of a project

Sources: Marten Mickos (MySQLUC 2005); O’Mahony & West, 2005; Mockus et al., 2005

The Shape of Community

● <15 core developers do 85-100% of core development work

● 1000/10/1 (Users/ Bug Reporters/ Patch Submitters)

● Community is difficult to achieve:● 72% of “open source developers” write

code for others like themselves● Most projects (55%) get no outside

involvement at all● BUT…even big community projects are

written by vendors

● The best place to solicit community involvement is in complements to a project, not the core

Why doesn’t community work as advertised?

• Time – Who has time to write (lots of)

free software?– Answer: Those that are

employed to do so

• Interest– Who will take out the trash?

• Aptitude– Writing an ERP system is very

hard/not many people can– The higher up the stack you go,

the fewer the developers

• Familiarity with project– Poor documentation makes it

hard to understand a project– Monolithic code base takes time

to learn (Most won’t bother)

“There is no upside to pushing freeloaders

away.”

Linus Torvalds, 2009

Community begins when self-interest meets software

Open Source Rising

Community Mechanics

Openbravo’s Community Outreach• Modularity and the Firefox-ization of Openbravo• Openbravo Forge


Concluding Remarks

Agenda

• Casual development depends upon modularity

• Openbravo modularity enables community first, company second

– Start with Openbravo core, make it your own– Functionality, integration with 3rd-party software,

localization, etc. • Community must derive significant

value from Openbravo, and beyond Openbravo

– Commercial support from Openbravo– Commercial opportunities that happen beyond

Openbravo, the company

Community starts when the company gets out of the way, and when architecture facilitates an add-on community

Openbravo’s Firefox moment in v2.50

Making Openbravo more like…Firefox

• >6,800 third-party add-ons• 45 full-time developers…but:

– 1,000 community code contributors;– >20,000 nightly testers and– >500,000 beta testers– >50 million daily users and >125 million total

users• Number of add-ons before Mozilla’s

re-architecture?– Roughly zero– Compare with Apple Safari and Microsoft IE,

which also are weak on community

The Firefox phenomenon

Openbravo Forge: A place for community to begin

• Announced in early April

• Openbravo Forge allows users to register projects and to have access to community/development tools, e.g., bug tracking, Wiki, forums, etc.

• Makes it easier for the community to develop (public or private) industry vertical templates, modules and localizations

• Additionally, Openbravo Forge allows the commercialization of Openbravo community products

• Enables the community without controlling the community

Openbravo is architected for community.

Now it’s your turn.

Open Source Rising

Community Mechanics


Community Begins with You• The more you contribute, the more you benefit• Ask not…

Concluding Remarks

Agenda

Learning from JBoss’ community

2002 2003 2004 2005 20063X 2X 1.5X 3.5X

Openbravo: What does it mean for you?

• Openbravo– Global QA– Leveraged development (Code, language packs, business processes, etc.)– Lowered barriers to trying Openbravo (means lower cost of sale)

• Partners– Ease of customization, enhancements– Chance to participate with Openbravo in development

• Steer the roadmap in your favor– Commercial opportunities extending the Openbravo platform

• Customers– Co-development: Make it your Openbravo– Lower prices– Improved product (Performance, functionality, tailored to individual needs)– The more you contribute, the less the potential for lock-in

Ask not what Openbravo can do for you…

Open Source Rising

Community Mechanics



Concluding Remarks

Agenda

matt asay - the community imperative - openbravo world conference 2009

Business

important

critical applications

survey question

faster time

commercial

open source

adopt open

oss projects