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Open Source Explained (in German, without Jargon, in 1500 Words)

Open-Source-Software, im engeren Sinne, ist Computer-Software (Programme), die kostenfrei genutzt, modifiziert, und weitergegeben werden können. Bekannte Beispiele für Open-Source-Software sind das Linux Betriebssystem und der Firefox Web-Browser. Open Source im weiteren Sinne ist ein von Menschen getragenes Phänomen, das uns ungeahnte Möglichkeiten der weltweiten Zusammenarbeit sowie neue Geschäftsmodelle gegeben hat.

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Creating and Growing Healthy Community Open Source Projects (PLoP ’20)

Abstract: This article presents a succinct and minimal handbook of best practices of how to create and grow community open source projects. We start with the assumption that the handbook’s user has a minimal but useful piece of software at hand that they want to open source and build a community around.

Keywords: Open source, open source projects, open source communities, creating open source projects, growing open source projects

Reference:  Riehle, D. (2020). Creating and Growing Community Open Source Projects. In Proceedings of the 27th Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs (PLoP 2020). ACM, 14 pages.

The paper can be downloaded as a PDF file.

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Inner Source and Financial Compliance

Inner source is the use of open source practices within companies. Engineers generally love it, but any open-source-style collaboration across business unit boundaries will usually get stopped dead in its tracks by the financial compliance department. That’s because financial compliance is likely to worry that to the tax authorities such inner source collaboration will look like attempts at profit shifting.

Below, please find a 20min. presentation on inner source and transfer pricing that I prepared for a workshop at the German Ministry of Finance. It is aimed at non-technical people.

You can also skim the slides, though the video offers significantly more information. Feel free to shoot any questions you might have my way.

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Open Source Community Governance the Apache Way (Drost-Fromm & Tompkins, IEEE Computer Column)

I’m happy to report that the 14th article in the Open Source Expanded column of IEEE Computer has been published.

TitleOpen Source Community Governance the Apache Way
KeywordsOpen Source Software, Distributed Computing, Documentation
AuthorsIsabel Drost-Fromm, Apache Software Foundation
Rob Tompkins, Apache Software Foundation
PublicationComputer vol. 54, no. 4 (April 2021), pp. 70-75

Abstract: An open source project without the people is a dead project—or at least one that is fairly deep asleep. While all successful open source projects understand that they need to build a community around their project, the exact options for doing so differ.

As always, the article is freely available (local copy).

Also, check out the full list of articles.

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How to Make Finding Inner Source Projects Easy

In 2006, we set-up SAP forge to make finding and collaborating on inner source projects easy. The advice of how to design a forge or portal for this purpose hasn’t really changed over the years. The most important advice is:

Make the forge available at one place (and one place only) with a memorable URL like forge.acme.corp

The second most important advice is on the design of the home page of the forge. There are a couple of independent mechanisms that should be present. In order of descending importance (read: prominence of screen real estate given):

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Research-to-Startup for Postdocs (5min. Video for DAAD PRIME Workshop)

This 5min. video discusses basics of turning your research into a startup. It focuses on public funding. The video was created for the March 2021 DAAD PRIME workshop, but is not restricted to a postdoc audience. Indeed, it works for anyone with a good idea and ideally a team who is willing to move to Germany to benefit from its rich ecosystem for public funding of startups.

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A Brief History of Free, Open Source Software and Its Communities (Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona, IEEE Computer Column)

I’m happy to report that the 13th article in the Open Source Expanded column of IEEE Computer has been published.

TitleA Brief History of Free, Open Source Software and Its Communities
KeywordsOpen Source Software, Licenses, Internet
AuthorsJesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
PublicationComputer vol. 54, no. 2 (February 2021), pp. 75-79

Abstract: Free, open source software (FOSS) has a long history, beginning with the origins of software itself, when the terms free software and open source software were not yet defined. Learning about the milestones of this history may help to understand FOSS today.

As always, the article is freely available (local copy).

Also, check out the full list of articles.