8 Ways Companies Can Contribute to Open Source Communities

Being Open Source is really the way to go. These are some of the reasons we are using OSS. Be friendly and helpful helps everyone go a long way!

Dr. Nic Williams is VP, Technology at Engine Yard where he is responsible for its large Open Source program. You can follow him on Twitter @drnic and read the Engine Yard blog at engineyard.com/blog.

Open source software (OSS) is recognized for the cost savings it delivers when compared with proprietary alternatives. As enterprises continue to adopt OSS, the open source communities, mostly made up of volunteers, have been calling on enterprises to make contributions and donations with the aim of fostering open source software innovation and growth.

With more that 1,000 open source communities in existence today, enterprises have many options when choosing where to contribute. With each community potentially delivering enterprise-grade technology, large companies have many reasons to keep open source alive and well. How can enterprises evaluate which communities to work with and how to get involved? Here are some suggestions.


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Why Companies Should Care and Contribute


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Open source has had a direct impact on a major aspect of how we live today in an Internet-driven economy. Everyone from Amazon to Google to Twitter to IBM to Microsoft has been impacted in some way through open source software.

As an example, who would have thought any smartphone could overtake the iPhone in handset sales? The leading smartphone operating system is now Android, an open source project by Google.

Taking a look at history, in the 1990s, the great innovations of the web were open source software — Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl — that radically reduced the software costs of developing web applications. Lower costs enabled massive innovation. Ruby on Rails is the latest example of free software that also reduces the human cost of developing web applications through its advanced MVC framework.

It’s clear that most major businesses are using some open source, whether they know it or not. Every Mac has open source bundled with it. Linux servers and desktops are open source. The Android phone software is open source. Microsoft even uses OSS while also viewing it as a competitor to its own products and platforms. Is there a business or enterprise that claims to be “open source free”?

Another example is my own employer, a Ruby on Rails hosting platform provider, which employs seven developers to work on open source projects full time and run an OSS Community Grant program. The reason that we make these investments is to ensure the health and success of the Ruby and Rails communities who form our core customer base.

One of the massive benefits of using open source within your organization or your core applications is that you are able to debug and improve these shared libraries/projects. These projects and their communities are your enterprise’s primary avenue for contribution. Permit (freely encourage) your developers to engage with the OSS community around each project. They, and your company, will get two primary benefits: You will gain a more intimate understanding of the projects, and you will have social and productive relationships with the other core developers and contributors in the community. It’s easy to ask a friend to help solve a problem. The first step is to contribute to their project; friendship and partnership will follow.

What if an OSS community does not want your contributions and assistance? Select a competing/alternate project. The true power of open source is the OSS community that forms around ideas and projects.


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The Impact of Contributions to OSS Communities


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Corporate contribution to open source enables highly productive communities. There are two types of communities: Those with a large corporate sponsor and those with grassroots support. The Android smartphone operating system or the Java language and runtime are examples of OSS projects that fostered large communities of users and developers and had corporate sponsorship.

The Ruby community is an example of a grassroots project. Of the 20+ core committers, none are full time developers on Ruby. In fact, the success of the Ruby on Rails web framework was another separate grassroots community which fed code contributions and grew the user base of the Ruby language itself (though it could be argued that 37Signals, the originators of Rails, was the corporate sponsor). The important thing to remember is that communities can grow faster and drive more innovation when they receive contributions.

OSS communities are a composite of skills (novice to expert) and of commitments to the project (users to core contributors). A community will have intermediate users helping novices, and experts helping intermediates. A community without any consistent, core contributors may mean that novice and intermediate users and developers cannot access education and assistance. They may move away from this OSS community and choose alternate projects.

There is an important funnel within OSS communities that needs to be fostered: Novices become intermediates who become experts, and users become developers who become core contributors. The benefits of corporate assistance can be to ensure the community has consistent access to intermediate and expert assistance for users and developers.

The net goal of an OSS community is self-sustenance for the project’s problem space. Not all corporate assistance serves this net goal. For example, if the core contributors are experts and cover all needs of the project in their role as developers, there may be no motivation for users to evolve to become developer contributors. Also, if an OSS project’s brand and identity is too aligned with a specific company, the project’s users may not identify as members of the OSS community. In each case, users may have fewer reasons to join the OSS community and to contribute to it and share it with their peers. The OSS community growth is stunted, the funnel is poorly balanced with only non-committed users and company-sponsored experts, and few participants in between.

With this point, there is one recent, high profile, real world example. The Jenkins CI (formerly Hudson CI) community is large, and recently demonstrated it was loyal to the community of Jenkins, not the trademark holder of “Hudson” (Oracle).

When Oracle, a relative newcomer to managing open source projects and communities, attempted to enforce rules and restrictions on the Hudson CI development team, a community decision was made to fork the project and rename it Jenkins CI. The community of plugin developers and users quickly followed, forking and renaming their projects. It’s important to remember that contributions to open source communities do not necessarily come with absolute control.


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Eight Ways to Contribute


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The growth of OSS continues unabated. New platforms, new languages, and new frameworks all encourage developers to create and contribute OSS and the OSS communities around the projects themselves. None of the open source software used today would have made a dent if it weren’t for contributors.

Contribution to OSS communities is always appreciated and drives innovation and growth. Contributions can range in activity from the most simple to the most complex. Here are eight ways that companies can contribute to the open source community contribution:


Submit bug reports.
Improve documentation.
Provide testimonials about the OSS your enterprise uses.
Allow staff members to work on OSS libraries/applications that your company uses.
Push changes to OSS back to the developers of those projects.
Host OSS club meetings on your premises; or feed and water the attendees.
Extract out and make “open source” the libraries or applications developed in-house.
Free up use of paid software/services for OSS communities.

Staff developers are increasingly demanding that they be allowed to contribute to OSS communities as part of their daily job. Salary and perks may be less important to many developers than the chance to contribute and participate with peer developers around the world. The opportunities for enterprises and their staff to participate in OSS communities is only just beginning. Your enterprise’s success or failure to navigate OSS communities and utilize OSS may enable or bottleneck its success.


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Source:
8 Ways Companies Can Contribute to Open Source Communities

4 Innovative Ways to Use Web Video for Small Business

You’ve seen videos of people doing ridiculous things on the Internet. But you probably haven’t seen too many videos of small businesses sharing their good work. Web video is more or less the domain of the ridiculous — whether that means something cute or something painful. Even top ads and commercials have a touch of the absurd (Old Spice, Dos Equis, I’m looking at you).

So how does a small business compete with disturbingly low attention spans and a whole Internet of viral videos? Read on for five ways that small businesses can take advantage of web video without blowing their budgets and let us know your own success stories in the comments below.


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1. Request User Submissions


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“Going viral” is a frustrating term both for its elusiveness and effectiveness. Viral videos can quickly get your product and brand out to a wide audience, but there is also practically no guaranteed way to “make” a video viral. Save yourself the trouble and get your audience to do the work for you.

Ask your fans or customers to send in videos of themselves using your product. For some, this can be a guaranteed hit. Such is the case with Michael Di Pippo, inventor of Pen Fishing Rods, a telescoping fishing rod that collapses to the size of a large pen. If that didn’t spark your interest, check the above video of someone actually catching a fish with it. Di Pippo bet that the shock value of it actually working would inspire customers to take videos using his product. The result was a motivated user-base and free publicity.

You might not be selling something as unique, but you can still encourage your clients to send in videos of them using whatever you’re selling. It’s a good way of extending the relationship past the point of sale and building a community.

Alternatively you can try to create a viral sensation like Blendtec’s Will It Blend? series. Rather than testing their blenders on tomatoes and walnuts, they started blending strange products like glowsticks, an iPad, and a crowbar. As a result, the videos (and Blendtec’s product) received millions of views and all it took was a little creativity. And a crowbar.


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2. Replace Content


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Try making a video instead of writing out your business updates. It’s easier for people to click play on a ~5 minute video than read a 500-word news brief. It helps to have some experience with basic editing and a decent camera, but people will ultimately tune in because your content is interesting or useful. Try offering deals or discount codes through your videos, while also talking about your product or service.

Using video to share business news or deals will help your business feel more personable as customers get accustomed to seeing you speak. This choice isn’t for everyone and every business, but it can help make your updates easier to digest and give your homepage a boost of personality.


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3. Teach Them and They Will Come


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Product demos are fun, but may not work for every type of business. For example, it could be tough to do a “demo” if you sell quilts or home garden supplies. Instead think of ways to teach and give back to your customers while also using your product. Selling quilts? Try a “How To” video on how you sew your quilts. Garden supplies? Make a video on how to plant a variety of bulbs and seeds using the products you sell.

If you’re business isn’t based around a physical product, think about doing a webcast or video on how to use your advanced features or set up the service.


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4. Make Some Face Time


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If you’re a small business, you can make your size work for you with video services, like Skype or even video calling on Gmail. Huge corporations like PepsiCo and Virgin are constantly trying to make their outreach more personal by attaching real people and real names to their customer service and social sites.

To get even more personal, create a business Skype or Gmail address (or any other service that allows you to video chat). Let customers know they can call you for some digital face time if they have any questions about your product or need help troubleshooting it. Doing so will help you build a stronger relationship with your customers and make your business feel more approachable at the same time.


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Source: 4 Innovative Ways to Use Web Video for Small Business www.Mashable.com

New Flash on Youtube

YouTube acquisition to foster better video, sell more ads

Mountain View, Calif.—YouTube has acquired video production company Next New Networks to help contributors develop better original content and attract advertisers.

The company's new YouTube Next division, formed from the acquisition, will be used to help members of YouTube's Partner Program develop more professional videos. Partner Program members share in the revenue of ads placed next to their videos, and better content is seen as a way to attract more ads.

Terms of the deal were not released by YouTube, but Canada Business Review has pegged the acquisition at $50 million.

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