fOSSa 2010 Free Open Source Software Academia Conference Grenoble France.

• RossRoss is Vice President of Community Development at The Apache Software
  Foundation (ASF) and manager of JISC OSS Watch.
• Ross is a strong believer that community is more important than code.
• His work enables him to examine and understand approaches to sustainability through open
  development and open innovation in many different fields.
• Ross engages with and advises on community management in a wide range of projects
  from newly funded short term research and development projects, to major
  international collaborative efforts.
• Ross is also chair of TransferSummit, an open innovation conference focussing on collaborative exploitation of intellectual property in software.
  • OSS Watch: http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk
  • Apache: http://www.apache.org
  • rgardler: http://www.twitter.com/rgardler

Community is more important than code

The Apache Software Foundation carries the mantra “community over code,” but why?

The assertion is that the building of a strong and collaborative software community will produce high quality software, almost as a by-product. So what is a “strong viable community” and how do you build one?

In this session Ross will first examine what an Apache style project community looks like and will then demonstrate why this structure is critical to the sustainability of an openly developed  open source project.

• A frequent speaker on various aspects of the GNOME project and former
  release manager of the GIMP, Dave is a freelance consultant specialising
  in the relationship between companies and free software communities.
• He has worked on a variety of projects, including MeeGo, Maemo and Openwengo.
• Dave Neary is the founder of Neary Consulting, specialising in community relations and free software strategy.
• He has served three terms as a member of the board of directors of the GNOME Foundation (2005 – 07), and was chairman of the board in 2006, and treasurer in 2007,where he oversaw massive growth in the GNOME advisory board.
• He created and edited the first annual report of the GNOME Foundation.
• Homepage http://www.neary-consulting.com/

Community anti-patterns

It may be hard to identify the magic that goes into a successful free
software community project, but it is easy to identify patterns in
unsuccessful community-building efforts. I present a humorous look at
the most common and egregious anti-patterns observed over the years in
online communities, and propose counter-measures which can be used to
combat their onset.

• David Cuartielles is co-founder of Arduino, assistant Prof. at Malmo University (Sweden), and Research Fellow at Medea’s Research platform (medea.mah.se).
• In the past he has been guest lecturer and researcher at IDII (Interacion Design Institute Ivrea, Italy), SADI (Samsung Art and Design Institute, Korea), National Research Institute of Tijuana (Mexico), and IIITB (Bangalore, India), among others.
• In 2006 he curated part of the Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria; at the time Arduino got a honorific mention for the quick growth of its community.
• Currently he is responsible for Arduino’s web strategy, writes a PhD in Open Source within Design, co-owns a small design firm building prototypes, and runs a research project on educational technologies for the masses financed by the Spanish Cultural Center in Mexico City.

• blog: blog.arduino.cc
  
• research blog: medea.mah.se

Arduino: mouth to mouth open hardware

Arduino has never spent a penny in promotion or advertisements, but it has never been paid by them either.

The economy of our hardware development model doesn’t allow for that, therefore the right network strategy at all times has been the fundamental aspect of getting our project to work.

In this talk I will make a brief revision of Arduino’s history, and I will look into the importance of the web as a tool for promoting an open source project without using the traditional cash-for-web-visibility model.

Most of our success is based in keeping the right level of discourse, one could argue that not even our web 2.0 tools are so up-to-date. Therefore mouth to mouth and community management are key.

• Wayne works for the Eclipse Foundation where he fills the dual roles of Director of Committer Community and Evangelist.
• He spends his days working with the many Eclipse projects, learning about Eclipse technology, and making sure that everybody knows just how cool it all really is.
• Wayne is also the editor-in-chief of Eclipse Corner, PMC Lead for the Technology Project, and Project Lead for the Eclipse Examples and Woolsey Projects.
• In 1982, he received the prestigious Chief Scouts Award from then-Governor General Edward Schreyer. In 1984 his team was selected to represent beautiful British Columbia in the Kinsmen Voyageur Relay.
• In his spare time, he writes down meaningless accomplishments from his youth in a lame attempt to impress the reader.

Successful Community-Development Practices

to be completed!

• Stéphane Ribas (M.Sc, University of Surrey 1996) has spent 12 years in software industries & services. In parallel, Stephane has been developping several OSS projects such as Bulletin Board System   a 3D Visual Studio software and several video games. He also contributes to different electronic music forums.
• He has spent many years in European countries & has been involved in several important projects as a support & technical consultant for large customers: he has developed very strong skills in building & fostering Internet communities.
• He joined INRIA in 2008 to co-lead OW2 Europe Local Chapter & contribute(d) to several Open Source projects/consortiums (Xwiki Concerto, AspireRFID, QualiPSo, NESSI OSS Working Group, Humavips, HOMES).
• Stéphane is also working on developing approaches to “build and sustain Open Source Communities”. He wrote articles & presented this approach in different university and organisation (OW2 Annual Conference @ Salon Linux, EOI Business School of Madrid, INRIA Development Days’08, Open Source Developers Day – Paris 2009, OSW09- IEEE – Sweden, RCIM 2010).
• Stephane gives also courses at the IAE school in Grenoble about Open Source

1. twitter
2. linkedin
3. articles
4. slides

Responsible of the Community Management & Promotion theme

Open Source Software is becoming more & more present in the IT landscape changing drastically the rules of the game (technical, business & society). Communities could become a booster for those OSS pieces of code if they are conducted properly (or by luck).

Launching a community and developing it successfully is not always a spontaneous action but relies on a structured approach. By presenting such a theme at fOSSa, we hope to foster anyone who would like to launch a community to throw himself into the adventure safely and avoiding pitfalls.