A Home for your open source project

🏡 A home for your open source project Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🗺 First, some context Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🗺 Why this topic? ● Recent consulting work to bring the AMP project to the OpenJS Foundation. ● Advised Coil on setting up the Interledger Foundation. ● Pro bono analysis to set W3C’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. ● Currently working on creating another software foundation in Geneva. ● OASIS Open Projects Advisory Council member. ● OpenJSF Cross Project Council member. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏡 What is it & what is it for? Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏡 What’s a foundation and what is it for? A foundation provides a legal entity for open source projects. It can: ● receive and spend money (e.g. infra costs, travel expenses), ● acquire and own assets (e.g. trademarks), ● grant and receive licenses (e.g. copyright, patents), ● hire people (e.g. for a security audit, coaching, etc.), ● host events, ● etc. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🤔 “Wait, do I need this?” Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🤔 If you’re wondering about this… Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🚫 …you probably don’t! Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

👉🚪 Now’s the right time to leave. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

⏱ Timing is critical Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

⏱ When should you move? Timing is critical. You’re always better off moving too late than too early! ● Wait until you experience growing pains & those can be solved by a foundation. ● What are good examples of issues that a foundation helps with? ○ Operational issues ○ Trust ○ Community ownership ○ Creating a level-playing field ○ Etc. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

⏱ When should you move? Timing is critical. You’re always better off moving too late than too early! ● Wait until you experience growing pains & those can be solved by a foundation. ● What are good examples of issues that a foundation helps with? ○ Operational issues ○ Trust ○ Community ownership ○ Creating a level-playing field Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

⏱ 🧳 Covering travel expenses of AMP TSC/AC members required fragile workarounds. 🔐 Data protection requirements added hurdles to the community-driven organization of the AMP Contributor Summit. ✍ CLA assigned the license to Google. This was a deterrent for many AMP contributors. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

⏱ When should you move? Timing is critical. You’re always better off moving too late than too early! ● Wait until you experience growing pains & those can be solved by a foundation. ● What are good examples of issues that a foundation helps with? ○ Operational issues ○ Trust ○ Community ownership ○ Creating a level-playing field Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

⏱ When should you move? Timing is critical. You’re always better off moving too late than too early! ● Wait until you experience growing pains & those can be solved by a foundation. ● What are good examples of issues that a foundation helps with? ○ Operational issues ○ Trust ○ Community ownership ○ Creating a level-playing field Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

⏱ When should you move? Timing is critical. You’re always better off moving too late than too early! ● Wait until you experience growing pains & those can be solved by a foundation. ● What are good examples of issues that a foundation helps with? ○ Operational issues ○ Trust ○ Community ownership ○ Creating a level-playing field Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

⏱ Why move as late as possible? ● A foundation adds overhead. ● A foundation costs money. ● You can start by creating an open governance model without a legal entity. ➢ That’s what we did for AMP! Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

⏱ Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

👍 So you’ve determined that this is—in fact—for you. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 Plenty of options Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 Foundations come in all shapes and forms Yearly revenue (2017 or 2018*) Status Apache Software Foundation $2,583,535 501(c)(3) Free Software Foundation (FSF) $3,663,026 501(c)(3) $96,582,653 501(c)(6) $555,610 501(c)(3) $2,999,466 501(c)(3) Linux Foundation* Open Source Initiative (OSI)* Software Freedom Conservancy Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 🌎 And that’s in the US only… Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 🌏 Most jurisdictions have equivalent legal structures. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 🌍 Switzerland’s are both lightweight & flexible. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 Foundations come in all shapes and forms ● Join an existing foundation. ● Foundation within a foundation. ● Foundation as a Service. ● Roll your own. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 Join an existing foundation The project is one of many other projects handled by the foundation. Example: a project joining either of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the Software Freedom Conservancy, OASIS Open Projects, or the OpenJS Foundation. PROS CONS ✅ Lightweight. ❌ Not very flexible (works for you or doesn’t). ✅ Cheap and fast to set up. ❌ Often limited in what it does (e.g. just IP). ✅ Little to no maintenance overhead. ❌ Lack of independence. ✅ Generally no membership fees (funded through sponsorship). Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 Foundation within a foundation The foundation is a spinoff of the parent foundation. Legally, it’s still the same entity. This is an Increasingly common model favored by the Linux Foundation. Examples: Cloud Native Computing Foundation, LF Edge Foundation, Hyperledger, GraphQL, etc. PROS ✅ Can be heavily customized. ✅ Still cheap and fast to set up. CONS ❌ Often requires members to pay membership fees to both the foundation itself and its parent foundation. ❌ No really independent from the parent foundation. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 Foundation as a Service The foundation is an independent organization that purchases services (accounting, tax filing, legal, etc.) from a separate entity focused on serving foundations. Examples: Open Mobility Foundation, the OpenJS Foundation itself, OASIS Foundation-as-a-Service, etc. PROS CONS ✅ Completely customizable. ❌ Complex and potentially costly to set up. ✅ Very much independent (the foundation is only purchasing a service). ❌ Significant maintenance overhead. ✅ Benefits from the economies of scale of its service provider. ✅ Free to set up its own membership solution. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 Roll your own Build everything from scratch. No one does this anymore. Examples: Linux Foundation (LF), Free Software Foundation (FSF), etc. PROS ✅ Design exactly what you want: the sky’s the limit. CONS ❌ Prohibitively expensive. ❌ Complex and long to set up. ❌ No economies of scale. ❌ High maintenance cost. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 Cheap & Easy 🏕 🏡 Rigid Flexible 🏖 🏰 Expensive & Complicated Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

Join existing foundation 🏘 Cheap & Easy Foundation within a foundation Rigid Flexible Done for you model Roll your own Expensive & Complicated Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 ⚖ No perfect solution. Always a tradeoff. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 🗜 So which one is a good fit for you? Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🏘 🤷 Well… it depends! Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

✅ Define your goals & requirements Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

✅ Goals & requirements ● Goals must be representatives of the needs of your stakeholders. ● Have reasonable goals. ➢ You can’t aim for a CNCF-like structure with a 50K yearly budget. ● Turn goals into requirements. ● Requirements will steer you towards a type of solution (from joining an existing solution to rolling your own). ● Requirements will help you reduce the size of your option pool quickly. ➢ For example, the ASF was not an option for AMP because of its requirements around tooling. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

✅ Change Pay attention to change. 💡 We tend to imagine this space as rigid and fixed. It’s not. It’s evolving all the time. ● There are new structures being created as new languages, projects, verticals, etc. gain traction. ● Existing structures change. ➢ ● There are mergers, spinoffs, etc. ➢ ● E.g. the ASF is now loosening it tooling requirements. E.g. FINOS joining the LF. Look around, maybe you can join forces with like-minded projects or individuals. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

✅ Seize opportunities Pay attention to opportunities and seize them. ● The OpenJSF was just getting announced when AMP started looking. ● Joining early allowed AMP to help shape the foundation significantly. ● As a result, we ended up with much of the flexibility that was needed with little of the cost. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

Join existing foundation ✅ Cheap & Easy Foundation within a foundation Rigid Flexible Done for you model Roll your own Expensive & Complicated Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

✅ Focus ● Don’t get distracted by bells and whistles. ● E.g. If you’re not interested in throwing events, the foundation’s capability of doing so isn’t really useful to you. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

✅ Learn from others ● A lot of people have been there before, talk to them. ● Great to avoid common pitfalls. ● Contextualize advice for your particular context. ● ➢ The lay of the land has probably changed since then. ➢ They had different needs and so made different tradeoffs. Get help if this is mission critical. ➢ A bit self-serving, but I’m sure my clients agree. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🙏 Thank you! Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen

🎤 Q&A Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen