Justifying an OSPO in Dollars and Cents - Van Lindberg, OSPOCO
Channel: The Linux Foundation
Date: 2021-10-08

Justifying an OSPO in Dollars and Cents - Van Lindberg, OSPOCO

When budgets get tight, OSPOs are frequently among the first areas targeted for cuts. Even in good times, OSPOs sometimes have a hard time communicating concretely how they are providing value to the larger organization, above just "avoiding license risk." On the other hand, when OSPOs are recognized as contributors to the corporate bottom line, it makes it much easier to build and continue effective open source engagement. This presentation will focus on some concrete ways to attribute increases in corporate value to a company's open source activities. How much is a Github star worth? Or an additional download? A pull request from an outside contributor? Or the goodwill associated with a sponsorship? Using a structure put in place at multiple companies, we will talk about how community relationships are a form of "goodwill" - like trademark goodwill - that can be valued. We can also measure how a company's actions can increase that goodwill. We will also discuss how OSPO-driven changes can lead to measurable differences in the cost of marketing, training, the cost of goods sold, and retention of employees.