OSCON 2019: Merging Yahoo and Aol’s open source programs, Gil Yehuda and Ashley Wolf
Channel: Yahoo Developer Network
Date: 2019-08-16

https://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/oscon-or/public/schedule/detail/75825

Every company needs to address how they manage open source. Verizon Media is the merger of Yahoo and AOL, and those two companies ran their open source programs quite differently. The result of bringing them together was surprisingly good, but the process to get there offers many insights into how you can structure your open source program office to address the biggest problems you may face.

Ashley Wolf and Gil Yehuda explain how Verizon Media now addresses license compliance, community management, the publication process, and how to run a program office at scale. You’ll explore real-world examples of things that worked well and things that needed much repair—as well as details on how it was done—and get advice on how to apply these lessons to your businesses.

Neglecting your open source program leads to problems. Ashley and Gil highlight some big ones, like when the wrong people have access to your code, license issues get you in hot water, and employees make well-meaning but incorrect decisions about code publications. Sometimes it takes a revolution to force you to step back and get a better hold on your open source program. But you don’t have to wait for a merger to force the changes. Better to set the processes right starting today; Ashley and Gil show you how.

If you don’t have a formal open source program office, or if you have one that needs a boost with some new ideas about how to maximize your value to the company, join this talk.

Ashley Wolf - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleywolf/
Gil Yehuda - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilyehuda