ConfSL 2011: Which relationship between enterprises and the free software community?

gabriele.ruffatti AT eng.it

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Which relationship between enterprises

and the free software community?

Gabriele RuffattiResearch & InnovationEngineering [email protected]


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Free software / Open Source

DISTRIBUTION

COMMUNITY

COMMERCIAL MODEL


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Industry-grade free software

… and its relationship with the COMMUNITY


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Different kinds of community

Simon Phipps, http://webmink.com/essays/community-types/


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end-users, adopters, committers

a varied community is a healthy community

conferencewhere open source meets academiahttp://fossa2010.inrialpes.fr


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open source communities evolution over time

A collective business model : collaboration to increase the value of the organization as a whole

Co-opetition relations : availability of technology and of a business platform

Actors

Goals

Individuals

Technology Technology TechnologyBusiness

Communities, Consortia,Competence Centers

NetworksEcosystems

Community

Hacker ethics GovernanceManagement


source: Cedric Thomas, OW2 Consortium, 2008


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What is the community

Safe place for personal achievement (love/gift)

Restrictions: reception and exclusion

Personal and collective identity


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What is the network

Unsafe ever-evolving place (gain/loss)

Openness: connection and disconnection

Personal identity and collective marketing


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Community Channel Upstream flow of added valueVendor-buyer relationshipsQuantitative rationale

Network EcosystemValue-added sharingCoopetition relationshipsQualitative and quantitative rationale

Efficiency – Differentiation – Customer relations Network externalities

from: Cedric Thomas, OW2 Consortium, 2008

New commercial model: business ecosystem

from profit-based to value-based economic models


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From the ecosystem to the ecology of value

EnterprisesEnd users

Developers

Network aggregators

IntegratorsService providers

Community and Network coexistence


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Motivations and incentives

Motivations at the individual and organizational leve l

Need to recognize contributions and successes, to award incentives

Ego-altruism

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

make money

distribute not marketable software products

get a reputation in OS/FS community

improve my job opportunities

improve OS/FS products of other developers

get help in realizing a good idea for a software product

solve a problem that could not be solved by proprietary software

limit the power of large software companies

think that software should not be a proprietary good

participate in the OS/FS scene

participate in a new form of cooperation

share knowledge and skills

learn and develop new skills

% of Respondents

Reason to continue with F/LOSS

Reason to start F/LOSS© 2002 International Institute of Infonomics

Monetary

Signaling

Product-related

Political

Social

source: Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) Study of Developers


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Comunity and the enterprise: the Engineering Group’s case study

economic model based onpure open source

FREE SOFTWARE AS THE KNOWLEDGE SPREAD AND SHARING (COMMONS)

PARTICIPATION IN GLOBAL COMMUNITIES

ECOSYSTEM-BASED MODEL


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PRODUCT-CENTRIC PROJECT-CENTRIC

dual-licensing/open-coreproprietary licensing sale

the project adapts itself to the product pure open sourcepurchase of support and consulting services

the product includes the users’ requirements:

- it adapts itself to the project needs (real value)

- it grows over time integrating innovations

Economic models based on FLOSS


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SpagoBI

The only BI suite 100% Open Source forever , suitable to the development of Business Intelligence projects in an integrated and very flexible environment

Services and solutions:Cloud BIMobile BIOn-demand BIReal-time BIAgile BILocation Intelligence


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SpagoBI community

Integrators

Developers

Users

Analysts, researchers and students


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Motivations and expectations of SpagoBI community

Free of charge and available:

software

documentation

easy of use

support

information

Poor sharing, scanty of feedbacks!


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Free software

Free software is not free of charge,

but it is collaboration and sharing

giving is no -senseunless we give in order to share


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Communications and incentives

Participants categorization

Different languages to different categories

Preparation of incentives

Reaffirmation of basic values

“ Why contributors should trust Engineering Group?Because of the concreteness of its statements and of its ac tions.”


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Actions

More information (use, extensions, promotion, contributions)

More tools (mail, forum, wiki, tracker, continuous integration, test)

More communication (suggestions, actions, visibility)

Quality data (product, process, participation)

More success stories (project plus user experiences)

More support to research and education (presentations, master thesis, stages)


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Expectations

Transparency, openness, collaboration, trust

Knowledge and experience sharing

Value is not only profit , but:

“a factor not just resulting from the sum of the values coming from the single contributions, but it is set on the background of the values and interdependencies shared by the different actors voluntarily andactively contributing to its creation.”

Source : Pilotti, Ganzaroli, 2006


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Lessons learned

CREATION OF COMMUNITIES AND NETWORKS

NON-QUANTITATIVE VALUE

RELATIONSHIP OF TRUST


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Is it the right time now?

Today:

Yesterday (2003)

New rules and values

http://www.thenation.com/reimagining-capitalism

“The present generations are living through a period requiring intense social and institutional creativity. There is a growing sense of urgency that leads to many proposals coming forth, of greater or lesser scope, with greater or lesser ambition, going from alternative economic theories to practical measures and policies. There is also ample scope for redirecting business imagination and technological innovation towards the deeper transfo rmation of world society, through developing truly knowledge intensi ve ways of producing and living .”

Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital, Carlota Perez, 2003


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We must look at the future, keeping our eyes and mi nd open :- investing in network relations feeding our own ecosystem- develop knowledge complementarity in order to adopt a way of thinking which is pre-adapted to future changes.

We must stand on the sidelines in a proactive way , pre-adapting ourselves to what is going to happen. We have to generate a potential stock and, even if we don’t know “when” we will have to use it, we must have a clear knowledge of “how” we will use it.

Looking at the value to produce sustainability.Veering if the wind turns

Credits to: http://fr.freepik.com e www.clipartgratis.it

A possible model of growth


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Live the community

Sharing and open collaboration

Altruism and trustworthiness as the base of the kno wledge society

Gift and gratuitousness along with sharing and part icipation

creation of the “right value”


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Throw the net

Thanks to this unknown Cambodian fishermen


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more resources: www.spagoworld.org

ecology of value: www.spagoworld.org/blog/

References

comments: www.linkedin.com (gruppo: SpagoWorld)

www.twitter.com (@gruffatti)

mailto: [email protected]

bibliografy: Quale rapporto tra aziende e comunità nel software libero?Conference proceedings

ConfSL 2011: Which relationship between enterprises and the free software community?

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