Open Source Summit Europe 2024

This talk looks at how corporate and team culture, and organisational structure, impact open source activities at the BBC. We will share our wins and losses in the open source space, and how the culture and organisation has helped or hindered open source. Much of BBC open source is driven by grassroots individuals and teams, rather than through an Open Source Programme Office, which has had benefits and drawbacks. As a publicly funded corporation, the motivations for engaging with open source can be a little different than other organisations, which we will explore. Finally, we will deep dive into the current state of play of open source and InnerSource projects at the BBC, how they are being managed, and what our next steps and future ambitions are.

Open source software is ubiquitous and forms the backbone of modern digital infrastructure, yet it often hides dependency risks that can impact organizations significantly. At GitHub, where we depend on tens of thousands of open source packages, we have leveraged open source frameworks from OpenSSF and other communities and created strategies to assess and mitigate these risks. Join us as we explore how OSPOs can use open source tools and standards to create plans for identifying and addressing dependency risks to improve their overall risk profile and improve project health. The talk will cover strategies for engaging with key stakeholders, including security teams, and funding opportunities to build resilient and sustainable open source ecosystems.

PagoPA, a public tech company owned by the Italian Ministry of Economy, is dedicated to crafting and advancing technological infrastructure for over 23,000 Italian Public Administrations, benefiting the entire population. Recognizing the prevalence of open source solutions within its portfolio, the company initiated a strategic endeavor: assembling a specialized multidisciplinary group of experts in FOSS to define a company-wide strategy. This effort culminated in the establishment of the Open Source Program Office, marking a pioneering move for an Italian public entity. During this presentation we will delve into the company's new open source strategy, emphasizing its alignment with the Italian national open source guidelines. Additionally, we will explore the pivotal role of the OSPO, serving as a vital link between the company's internal operations and the dynamic FOSS communities. Guided by the open source maturity model, the company aims to evolve from being a conscientious user of FOSS solutions to assuming a central position as a key contributor, thus benefiting the broader ecosystem.

The importance of software in the automotive industry is growing every year, and the use of open source is also increasing. Especially recently, software development related to SDV (Software Defined Vehicle) has become active. Therefore, the recent trend in the automotive industry is not only to simply use open source software, but also to contribute to open source development. In Europe, there are many cases where companies in the automotive industry have established OSPO and provide information, and OSPO's contribution to the community is also remarkable. This session will feature a panel discussion among OSPO leaders from the automotive industry, including Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and Toyota. They will share the background of their OSPOs, the activities they focus on, and we will discuss trends in the industry. You will learn in this session that the form of OSPO varies from company to company, even in the same industry, and we aim to provide you with tips on how you can promote your open source activities.

The data available about open source projects can feel like a tsunami, but there are ways to make this more manageable by focusing on the metrics that matter the most for your OSPO. This session will highlight how OSPOs can use data to generate meaningful insights about the open source software communities that are important for your business. This talk will start with a discussion about how to approach the tsunami of data by moving from data points toward insight and wisdom about your open source software. We’ll start with data collection and processing before discussing how collections of metrics can be used to understand your community more holistically than looking at individual metrics. The final section will include examples of how to interpret the data to move beyond analysis and find tangible ways to improve your OSS projects. We’ll show examples from Augur and 8Knot to show what is possible with structured data and metrics from the CHAOSS project. The audience will walk away with tips and techniques for making sense of those waves of data using collections of metrics and data science to result in actionable insights about your open source software.

As the open source ecosystem grows, an increasing number of professionals are engaging with open source projects through their employment. This presents challenges, practical, legal, and above all cultural. To navigate these, a group of experienced community members has written a guide outlining guardrails of how to bridge corporate and community worlds. We call this the "Principles of Authentic Participation." This presentation will explore these principles, drawing on real-world experiences to highlight effective strategies for bridging corporate and community interests in open source development. Attendees will gain insights into practical and ethical engagement, tailored for those who contribute to open source projects as part of their corporate roles or manage such initiatives. We aim to foster a meaningful dialogue that promotes genuine collaboration between the corporate world and the open source community.

Join us for an insightful panel at OSPOcon, featuring representatives from Alibaba, Ant Group, and ByteDance, as we delve into the varied landscapes of Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) across these top Chinese firms. This discussion will highlight both the commonalities and unique approaches these companies take toward open source engagement. Panelists will share their experiences with internal open source project incubation, as well as discuss their strategies for leveraging ecosystem connections to drive business transformation through open source. This session offers a unique perspective on how different organizational cultures within China shape their open source practices, providing valuable insights for anyone looking to understand or engage with open source in a global context.

Collectively, we struggle to consistently define the value of open source and work supporting open source projects. Without clear value attributed to open source projects and development, it can be difficult to justify continued investment, especially as many users rely on open source solutions as a source of cost savings. This talk will discuss longstanding and novel economic, social and operational models designed to understand and measure the value of open source, with the goal to help contributors, organizations and companies identify what approach best meets their needs and context.

The CHAOSS Academic Working Group was formed in 2023 to examine the OSS metrics and models found in a university setting. No two OSS projects are the same, and often have different goals - but when we started looking at what a successful OSS project looks like in universities, we were surprised that so few of the existing CHAOSS metrics could be used to address the common goals and questions asked by researchers, students, and academic staff. Join us for this panel discussion with members of the CHAOSS Academic Working Group to hear about how to consider measuring OSS in an academic context, when we look at the question from an individual, institutional and system-wide point of view.

At this year’s Open Source Summit Europe, we are excited to share the comprehensive early steps of our journey of establishing our own Open Source Program Office (OSPO) within our corporation. From the initial steps of crafting foundational policies to overseeing compliance with open source licenses, our narrative provides a detailed roadmap for others embarking on a similar path. We will delve into our strategic approaches to tracking employee contributions to open source projects and the intricacies involved in releasing our first open source projects. Our presentation will highlight how integrating open source practices extends beyond enhancing innovation and efficiency in software development. We underscore the alignment with our company's core values, particularly in sustainability—not only in the environmental sense but also in fostering a sustainable technological ecosystem. We will explore how participating in open source projects is pivotal to both advancing corporate innovation and upholding commitments to sustainable practices that resonate with our broader corporate ethos.

You know all about OSPOs - but have you heard about ISPOs? If an OSPO can be defined as the center of gravity for an organization’s open source operations and structure, then an ISPO performs a similar role for InnerSource. InnerSource, the use of open source methods to create proprietary code, is often used as a step on the path to open source readiness. Last year, InnerSource Commons launched an ISPO Working Group for those involved in enabling InnerSource within their organizations. Some of those involved work in or with OSPOs. In this panel session, moderator Clare Dillon will discuss the emergence of ISPOs with ISPO Working Group members. The panel will explore the role of an ISPO, the parallels to an OSPO, and where the two organizations may differ in terms of objectives or activities. Join us to learn more about this emerging trend and to hear real-life ISPO experiences from organizations operating in health, media, and technology verticals.