Making the Business Case for Contributing to Open Source

A presentation at InnerSource Commons Spring Summit 2019 in April 2019 in Galway, Ireland by Tobie Langel

Slide 1

Slide 1

Making the business case for contributing to open source

InnerSource practitioners edition

Tobie Langel, Principal, UnlockOpen (@tobie)

Slide 2

Slide 2

Why should companies contribute to open source?

Slide 3

Slide 3

Slide 4

Slide 4

Open source ROI

The ROI of using open source is well understood.

The ROI of contributing to open source: not so much.

Slide 5

Slide 5

Risk

The risk of contributing to open source is:

  • not well understood,
  • generally exaggerated.

Slide 6

Slide 6

The “InnerSource solution”

Slide 7

Slide 7

The “InnerSource solution” - Perception

Slide 8

Slide 8

The “InnerSource solution” - Reality

Slide 9

Slide 9

Understanding the value of contributing to open source

  1. Strategic benefits
  2. Second-order benefits

Slide 10

Slide 10

Commoditize Your Complement

Slide 11

Slide 11

On-ramp developers

Slide 12

Slide 12

Understanding the value of contributing to open source

  1. Strategic benefits
  2. Second-order benefits

Slide 13

Slide 13

Slide 14

Slide 14

Slide 15

Slide 15

Slide 16

Slide 16

Slide 17

Slide 17

Slide 18

Slide 18

TWICE AS EFFICIENT

Contributing firms capture up to 100% more productive value from usage of open source than their free-riding peers.

Source: Franck Nagle, Learning by Contributing, 2017.

Slide 19

Slide 19

75% OF FACEBOOK’S NEW ENGINEERING RECRUITS MENTION FACEBOOK’S OPEN SOURCE PROGRAM AS A KEY REASON THEY ACCEPTED THEIR OFFER

Slide 20

Slide 20

“But we also noticed some effect that we didn’t expect. All the public visibility [sponsoring Webpack] have given us lead to a situation where we suddenly became one of the most interesting companies to work for as a JavaScript developer. […]” “We’ve hired a lot of really great engineers who mentioned during their job interview that our sponsoring for Webpack was one of their primary motivations for applying, […]”

—Patrick Gotthardt, Lead JavaScript Architect, Trivago, 9 July 2018.

Slide 21

Slide 21

Slide 22

Slide 22

Mitigate the risk of contributing to open source

Slide 23

Slide 23

Lost competitive advantage

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.” —Wayne Gretzky

Photo: Rick Dikeman, 1997 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Slide 24

Slide 24

Lost IP

“In today’s world of fast-paced internet services deployment, owning IP has become considerably less important than turning research results into innovative products as quickly as possible, and deploying them at scale.”

—Yann LeCun, Business Insider, Aug. 3, 2018.

Photo: O’Reilly AI Conference, 2016 (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Slide 25

Slide 25

Slide 26

Slide 26

Now it’s your turn!

  • Framework to think in terms of business tradeoffs.
  • A toolkit of benefits and mitigation strategies.
  • See how it applies to your organization.

Slide 27

Slide 27

Now it’s your turn!

  • Be reasonable.
  • Show empathy to others’ needs in the organization.
  • Aim for small wins. Start small.
  • Remember it’s a mindset shift.

Slide 28

Slide 28

Thank you!

Tobie Langel Principal, UnlockOpen tobie@unlockopen.com unlockopen.com Photo: Robert Linsdell (CC BY 2.0)