Lars Kurth Community Manger, Xen Project Chairman, Xen Project - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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

50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 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, Terremark, …

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 Symptoms Consequences 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

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now Xen Governance Canonical drops Xen RedHat drops Xen in RHEL6 Roadmap & Release Management Another key vendor nearly dropped Xen Technical Coordination Team 1st KVM release Growth potential was limited early Xen becomes LF Collaborative Project

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013(Q3) Source: Git Repos + GitDM

120 Xen XAPI Mirage OS

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

2010 2011 2012 2013 (H1) UPC Spectra Logic Redhat iweb GridCentric Calxeda Fujitsu (Misc) AWS (Academia) John Hopkins University AMD Linaro Oracle NSA Intel (Individual) Suse Citrix

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

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - 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

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - 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 Blog 1 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

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - 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

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 2010 2011 2012 2013 (Q3) 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?

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Developer list traffic : Q3 2003 - now

PR Working Group Confidence Building Community Blog Events v2 Community spokespeople

50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 Q4 2012 Q1 2013 Q2 2013 Q3 2013 Press clips

Companies Community

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 Evangelize Contribute Customize Lead 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 Evangelize Contribute Customize Lead 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 Evangelize Contribute Customize Lead

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 Evangelize Contribute Customize Lead More People drop out 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 Evangelize Contribute Customize Lead

2011

Event Presence Ease of Use Press Governance Social Media Neutrality WebSite Collaboration Values Brand Documentation Getting Started Support Volunteer Programs Community Programs Platforms for Self Promotion Business Opportunities Communication Extend Project Scope Distros Training Diversity

Follow Industry News Follow Project News Adopt Software Engage with Users Trial Software Engage with Industry Evangelize Contribute Customize Lead Event Presence Ease of Use Press Governance Social Media Neutrality WebSite Collaboration Values Brand Documentation Getting Started Support Volunteer Programs Community Programs Platforms for Self Promotion Communication Extend Project Scope Business Opportunities Distros Training Diversity Distros Volunteer Programs Community Programs Values Collaboration Ease of Use WebSite Documentation Getting Started Governance Neutrality Business Opportunities Press Social Media Brand ARM + Mirage OS Event Presence Communication Event Presence Communication Diversity

NOW

Follow Industry News Follow Project News Adopt Software Engage with Users Trial Software Engage with Industry Evangelize Contribute Customize Lead Event Presence Ease of Use Press Governance Social Media Neutrality WebSite Collaboration Values Brand Documentation Getting Started Support Volunteer Programs Community Programs Platforms for Self Promotion Communication Extend Project Scope Business Opportunities Distros Training Diversity Distros Volunteer Programs Community Programs Values Collaboration Ease of Use WebSite Documentation Getting Started Governance Neutrality Business Opportunities Press Social Media Brand ARM + Mirage OS Event Presence Communication Event Presence Communication Diversity

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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Flickr:

“Messy Apartment” by Ryo Chijiiwa “The Ivory Tower” by Daniel Parks “Desert Road 9” by LabyrinthX “Cotton Plant” by Aileen “Giant Sequoia Trees” by Raj “Damselfly caught in sundew” by Mysserli

Other Images:

By Lars Kurth or aquired

Xen Project:

www.xenproject.org wiki.xenproject.org lists.xenproject.org xenbits.xenproject.org @xen_org ##xen

Funnel:

talesfromthecommunity.wordpress.com