SoHeal2019 - Josianne Marsan
Channel: Tom Mens
Date: 2019-06-01

SoHeal 2019 presentation by Josianne Marsan (University of Laval, Québec, Canada) of "Corporate involvement in Open Source Software ecosystems: challenges and strategies to sustain ecosystem health". Joint work with Patrick Marois, Mathieu Templier and Bogdan Negoita, carried out in the context of the Québec-Wallonie interdisciplinary research project SecoHealth.

https://soheal.github.io/program.html

Abstract. Today's organizations are facing more volatile and complex environments to which they must creatively adapt to and reinvent themselves. Being innovative requires new forms of organizations that can be supported by open and collaborative interactions, such as creativity networks, crowdsourcing, or innovative ecosystems. In the particular context of software development, open source software (OSS) projects follow the same logic of collaboration. Evidence shows that public and private businesses increasingly tend to incorporate into large-scale OSS projects, namely OSS ecosystems, to reduce effort and accelerate innovation. As a result, independent and voluntary contributors as well as corporate employees interact in OSS ecosystems within a shared market for software and services. Such interaction results in many challenges, notably with respect to commercial interests of firms that contrast basic values of OSS communities. On the one hand, the relationship between the community and the businesses could provide benefits for both sides, including knowledge transfer and learning, reputation, financial support, or sharing of strategic resources. On the other hand, the participation of businesses might constraint development activities and limit the self-governance of OSS communities. In some cases, the relationship deteriorates and, as a result, leads to severe negative impacts threatening the long-term health of the ecosystem, as illustrated by the engagement of ORACLE in the LibreOffice project. Therefore, there is a need to better understand the various challenges that arise in OSS corporate-communal engagements, and how to cope with such threats in order to encourage mutual benefits and sustain the long-term health of OSS ecosystems. To do so, we interviewed 18 OSS ecosystems experts, covering various roles (e.g., developers, maintainers, community managers), and having many years of experience and contributions in large international OSS projects. In this talk, we will present insights from our experts with respect to the main challenges related to OSS corporate-communal engagements, as well as strategies to help carrying out a smooth and sustainable involvement. We will illustrate our findings with evidence from the field and concrete examples of corporate engagement.