FOSS Founda*ons Enable Community Growth
Stephen R. Walli
September 2011
What is a Founda*on?
Founda8ons are non-‐profits* that provide: Legal Structure
Business Opera8ons Technical Services
* But they are s8ll businesses
Founda*ons
* But they are s8ll businesses
Corporate Projects
Why does it ma?er?
Neutrality encourages contribu8on Clean IP encourages adop8on
Founda8ons act as community centre-‐of-‐gravity
Founda*on as Community Centre-‐of-‐Gravity
Crea*ng Strong Communi*es
• Support an Architecture of Par8cipa8on • Make it easy to join the conversa8on
• Support and grow commiPers
• Support lines of communica8ons
• Provide technical services (forges, code signing, etc.)
Neutrality Encourages Contribu*on (Inbound)
Neutrality and Ownership
• Henrik Ingo sta8s8cs on founda8ons and project ac8vity (hPp://bit.ly/f3O34M)
Neutrality and Ownership
• Successful Projects Grow and Evolve un8l … – Apache So[ware Founda8on – OSDL/Linux Founda8on – Eclipse Founda8on
Clean IP Encourages Adop*on (Outbound)
Legal Structures are Important
• License (inbound/outbound) • Assignments and Contribu8on Licenses
• Provenance tracking • Liability and risk management
• CommiPer indemnifica8on
Ques*ons?
Stephen R. Walli
Technical Director, Outercurve Founda8on hPp://www.outercurve.org
[email protected] hPp://stephesblog.blogs.com (Once More unto the Breach)
hPp://www.networkworld.com/community/walli
@stephenrwalli