Lars Kurth Community Manger, Xen Project Chairman, Xen Project Advisory Board Director, Open Source, Citrix lars_kurth

Was a contributor to various projects Worked in parallel computing, tools, mobile and now virtualization Long history in change projects Community guy at Symbian Foundation Learned how NOT to do stuff Community guy for the Xen Project Working for Citrix Accountable to Xen Project Advisory Board Chairman of Xen Project Advisory Board

Projected Source: The 2013 Future of Open Source Survey Results More than 1 Projects Million Today

Late 90’s Today Individuals & Hobbyist's Still about Individuals But, a majority are employees Companies have a huge stake

Features How many users you have How many vendors back you How you are seen in the press … Different Management Disciplines

can help you succeed

Neutrality / Perception Support Infrastructure Expertise / Mentoring Vendor Network … BUT: You still need to do all the right things

Case Study

An Open Source Hypervisor > 10M Users Powering some of the biggest Clouds in Production Amazon Web Services, Rackspace Public Cloud, Verizon Cloud, … Several sub-projects Xen Hypervisor (including Xen on ARM), XAPI management tools, Mirage OS Linux Foundation Collaborative Project Sponsored by Amazon Web Services, AMD, Bromium, Calxeda, CA Technologies, Cisco, Citrix, Google, Intel, NetApp, Oracle, Samsung and Verizon 10 years old

Fixes that were applied (there may be others) Effect this had Magnifying effect SymptomsConsequences for Xen Four Key Issues At the end : Reflection & Tools

Unwritten Rules Undefined Roles Lack of Upfront Collaboration

Hard to join the project Vendors got frustrated Hard to work with the project

Developer list traffic : Q now Xen Governance Canonical drops Xen RedHat drops Xen in RHEL6 Roadmap & Release Management Another key vendor nearly dropped Xen Technical Coordination Team 1 st KVM release Growth potential was limited early Xen becomes LF Collaborative Project

Source: Git Repos + GitDM 120 Xen XAPI Mirage OS

Theory: vendor neutrality = more contributors Early indicators: Individual Contributors have doubled Advisory Board members are becoming contributors Momentum in new market segments is building Advisory Board is developing a long term project Vision Creating incentives to become more mature

Inwards focus –Not working with upstreams (branched kernel and QEMU) –Not working with distros (users are not “our” problem) Created “pain for distros” Intercommunity Friction Introvert Community Image Problem

Developer list traffic : Q now IBM, VMware, Red Hat and Citrix Agree on PVOPS in Linux kernel Linux Guest support for Xen Linux Host support for Xen Upstream QEMU complete Actively working with distros

Improved Relationships & Trust Xen Developers Care about Users Xen becoming easier to use Improved Image in the media and FOSS community

Significant increase in Goodwill from the LINUX community Working with upstream & downstream projects is easier Collaboration happening earlier than in the past Automotive, Mobile, Embedded

Developer list traffic : Q now Focus on events for the existing community only Enough Papers Enough Talks Enough Communication By enough vendors Competing Projects Excelled at Communication Change of Guard Empty Promises Blog1 Person

Project became an “invisible man” Belief that Xen is not open source Slowed the growth of the user base Perception: the project is “dead” Constant stories in the press that the project is dying First: Defiance – this is all “Fud” Then: Project started to believe this too

Developer list traffic : Q now Confidence Building Community Blog Events v2 Community spokespeople

Project perception has changed dramatically Neutral to positive (example: eWeek “How Xen got its Zen back”) No more Xen bashing Talks / Events / Orgs

Two very successful Press Releases Powerful message (that is true, but was not told/heard before) Linux Foundation Expertise Press Releases and other LF channels Coaching and supporting of community members Xen Project Advisory Board : Marketing and PR Committee What is the Future for the Project?

Developer list traffic : Q now PR Working Group Confidence Building Community Blog Events v2 Community spokespeople

Press clips

CompaniesCommunity

Within Citrix : via the process of “giving up control” Big enough plan to catch the attention of senior management Forced decision makers in the hierarchy to consider the value of F/OSS Amongst companies supporting the project financially Forced decision makers in contributors to go through a similar process

Governance and Neutrality Matter Projects don’t exist in isolation Poor Marketing and Communication can kill you Good project sponsors can make a difference Being part of a Foundation can make a big difference A project needs to constantly evolve

License & Development Model Linux (but also BSDs) are key components in a Xen stack Most Xen contributors were Linux Foundation members Vendor Friendly Strengths: PR, User Outreach, Events Management, …

Multi-discipline Complexity

Follow Industry News Follow Project News Adopt Software Engage with Users Trial Software Engage with Industry EvangelizeEvangelize ContributeContribute CustomizeCustomize LeadLead Think of the funnel boundary as a permeable membrane, not a fixed border It can take >2 years for changes at the top of the funnel to make a difference at the bottom The Funnel has feedback loops: what happens at the top can affect the bottom

Follow Industry News Follow Project News Adopt Software Engage with Users Trial Software Engage with Industry EvangelizeEvangelize ContributeContribute CustomizeCustomize LeadLead Control the permeability and shape of the funnel Activities Attributes Events Project Scope E.g. Xen on ARM, Mirage OS Increase the width and thus the potential market for the project How can we influence how the Community Funnel works? Some items are in your control Others - such as what the competition does - are not!

Follow Industry News Follow Project News Adopt Software Engage with Users Trial Software Engage with Industry EvangelizeEvangelize ContributeContribute CustomizeCustomize LeadLead Example: Factors influencing early stages of open source software adoption Documentation Ease of Use Training On-boarding

Follow Industry News Follow Project News Adopt Software Engage with Users Trial Software Engage with Industry EvangelizeEvangelize ContributeContribute CustomizeCustomize LeadLead Funnel becomes narrower Negative Feedback: vendors may stop contributing Bad Press Example: Negative feedback loop

The Community Funnel is an excellent internal sales tool Reason: Sales and Business people understand funnels It helps you understand what is happening It helps prioritize what to focus on Covers the time dimension : some issues take longer to fix than others Forces you to consider the “Big Picture”

Follow Industry News Follow Project News Adopt Software Engage with Users Trial Software Engage with Industry EvangelizeEvangelize ContributeContribute CustomizeCustomize LeadLead 2011 Event Presence Ease of Use PressPress GovernanceGovernance Social Media NeutralityNeutrality WebSiteWebSite CollaborationCollaborationValuesValues BrandBrand DocumentationDocumentation Getting Started SupportSupport Volunteer Programs Community Programs Platforms for Self Promotion Business Opportunities CommunicationCommunication Extend Project Scope DistrosDistrosTrainingTraining DiversityDiversity

Follow Industry News Follow Project News Adopt Software Engage with Users Trial Software Engage with Industry EvangelizeEvangelize ContributeContribute CustomizeCustomize LeadLead Event Presence Ease of Use PressPress GovernanceGovernance Social Media NeutralityNeutrality WebSiteWebSite CollaborationCollaborationValuesValues BrandBrand DocumentationDocumentation Getting Started SupportSupport Volunteer Programs Community Programs Platforms for Self Promotion CommunicationCommunication Extend Project Scope Business Opportunities DistrosDistrosTrainingTraining DiversityDiversity DistrosDistros Volunteer Programs Community Programs ValuesValuesCollaborationCollaboration Ease of Use WebSiteWebSiteDocumentationDocumentation Getting Started GovernanceGovernanceNeutralityNeutrality Business Opportunities PressPress Social Media BrandBrand ARM + Mirage OS Event Presence CommunicationCommunication CommunicationCommunication DiversityDiversity NOW

Follow Industry News Follow Project News Adopt Software Engage with Users Trial Software Engage with Industry EvangelizeEvangelize ContributeContribute CustomizeCustomize LeadLead Event Presence Ease of Use PressPress GovernanceGovernance Social Media NeutralityNeutrality WebSiteWebSite CollaborationCollaborationValuesValues BrandBrand DocumentationDocumentation Getting Started SupportSupport Volunteer Programs Community Programs Platforms for Self Promotion CommunicationCommunication Extend Project Scope Business Opportunities DistrosDistrosTrainingTraining DiversityDiversity DistrosDistros Volunteer Programs Community Programs ValuesValuesCollaborationCollaboration Ease of Use WebSiteWebSiteDocumentationDocumentation Getting Started GovernanceGovernanceNeutralityNeutrality Business Opportunities PressPress Social Media BrandBrand ARM + Mirage OS Event Presence CommunicationCommunication CommunicationCommunication DiversityDiversity NOW (areas that so far benefited from being in the Linux Foundation)

To succeed, a wide range of “community” and “management” tools need to be applied continuously

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Segoe UI LightSegoe UI Semibold For all Product Names Segoe UI LightSegoe UI Semibold For all Product Names Flickr: “Messy Apartment” by Ryo ChijiiwaRyo Chijiiwa “The Ivory Tower” by Daniel ParksDaniel Parks “Desert Road 9” by LabyrinthXLabyrinthX “Cotton Plant” by AileenAileen “Giant Sequoia Trees” by RajRaj “Damselfly caught in sundew” by MysserliMysserli Other Images: By Lars Kurth or aquired Xen Project: wiki.xenproject.org lists.xenproject.org ##xen Funnel: talesfromthecommunity.wordpress.com