Building A Community Within A Corporation – 3 – Create Dynamic

Now, the governance and the tools are in place. Let’s get some members !

To do so, we first did 4 things :

1. we created our front page on the corporate website : objectives & registration
2. we sent emails invitations to  our network - friends, colleagues - within the company
3. we sent invitations to departments that would be interested in joining
4. we sent invitations to all community leaders who forwarded to their members

I was also leading a small group of Open Source geeks locally. We had a brainstorm from where came out few ideas of projects we shared with the new community. Thus, we started to feed the Community with ideas and potential projects such as OpenCoE - a Linux Desktop -, Amistad - a Linux Server, and few others.
This created immediatly a lot of activity on the mailing list which was the main media we used. The discussions around these projects created new discusions and also generated requests for advice or assistance. This last point is key because the community was able to create value from the beginning.

The coreteam spent a lot of time – and some nights – trying to organize the discussions and the information. We wanted to understand where the community would be able to engage – what project – and to make our best to turn ideas into something concrete. So, we started to communicate to our Management and to the EDS fellows on some of the good ideas that emerged from the discussions.

The discussion also generated some negative posts, mainly complaining on EDS position towards Open Source. Indeed, EDS was qualified as a “Microsoft Company”.
You must be prepared to it. I will write later on this subject but the main advices are :

• listen to the negative posts, do not ignore them
• be constructive taking the positive side of the message
• don’t feed the troll

What did I learn ?

• Get your members where they are, use the tools they use
• Suggest subjects of interest to create initial dynamic
• Be prepare to negative feedback and manage them
• Find a way for the community to create value – even very small - as soon as possible
• Communicate with your Management

And I encourage you to train like a sailor to sleep little for a while.

Building A Community within A Corporation – 2 – Make it Real

Now, that we have our sponsors, Sue & Tom, let’s make it real !

EDS Knowledge Management department was providing support to Communities of Practices : a documented process with several steps, roles, activities, input, output, tools (mainly a mailing list), governance and a forum for community leaders to share ideas and knowledge.
This made easier the creation of a community and it was a formal recognition of role of Communities within the Corporation.
On this other side, EDS could keep an eye on the Communities and influence them, injecting some Corporate objectives and values.

One of the key best practice when first creating a community, is the leadership. It should be legitimate within the Corporation and among the future community members. This is key in a Corporation since leaders make the necessary link between the bazaar and the cathedral.

Charles, who was leading EDS midrange servers hosting services, was our first community leader. Charles was an “old EDSer”, able to understand EDS strategy and thus discuss with top management. Moreover, Charles’ team was running most of the Linux and Unix systems for EDS clients.

We formed a coreteam with whom we thought were the most legitimate people :

• Mark : leader of Linux on Mainframe activities
• Franco :  Charles counterpart in EMEA
• Erik : the Knowledge Management group representative
• Jean-Yves : the energy guy

We defined our objectives and published them on the “Corporate Community wall”. It took us some times to formulate it through several, simple items. But I know believe we could have done it easier if we would just have agreed on the main objective : “promote open source software within EDS”.

I have learned 2 main things at this time :

1. How important it is to work on both sides – Corporation & Community – when you start building your community. And how important it is to have relays since the beginning because you cannot be everywhere. Forget it !
   You need a group of committed people, a coreteam, woking for the same purpose.
2. You can define any objective, publish it anywhere, what count at the end of the day is what you do ! So, decide with your coreteam what you want to achieve, say it simply and do it !

One element to also take into consideration is the leadership change that can happen because people are leaving the company. I will write more on this subject later but you should consider it from the beginning. There is little chance a Community in a Corporation can survive if the only leader is leaving. You need to reach the right level of maturity and at least a Collaborative Leadership… and few more tricks.

Building A Community within A Corporation – 1 – Late Evening in My Office

Last week, a former colleague called me to discuss about EDS Open Source Community. How it was created. How we made it the most dynamic Community within EDS.

Indeed, I had lead EDS Open Source Community from the beginning until … the end.

I couldn’t give him a short answer. So, I decided it may worth it to share my experience building EDS Open Source Community. It is neither a strategy  nor a framework. It is only a short human story where I tried to listen and learn during the journey.

EDS Open Source Community journey starts during fall 2003.

It is late evening in my Office, Christophe and I having a confcall with 2 influent people at EDS. Tom is an EDS Fellow, Sue is in charge of Microsoft partnership at EDS for EMEA. Although they have different motivations in creating the Open Source Community, they decided to help us, behind the scene. And their help is essential for the journey as you will see later.

They are our “moral approval” when we cross the borderline and they can connect us with the right people.

The first lesson I learned is that you need a sponsor, high enough in the management chain, when you want to create change. I would prefer an invisible sponsor – behind the scene – rather than a too visible one.

Governments Open Source Policies

There is an interesting update of a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) which is tracking governmental policies on the use of open source software.

The data provide a snapshot of the state of open source policy. Open source
policy is divided into four categories: research, mandates (where the use of open source software is required), preferences (where the use of open source software is given preference, but not mandated), and advisory (where the use of open source software is permitted). They also looked at whether an initiative was made at the national, regional, or local level, and whether it was accepted, under consideration, or rejected.

In 2008, they found 275 open source policy initiatives.

Extract of the introduction :

“Changes in the software industry have affected open source policy. Many software companies are creating new business models that blend proprietary and open software development. One result of this shift is that software business models at many companies focus on how to capture the benefits of collaborative processes in coding (including collaborative processes involving both employees and non-employees).
The business model at many companies has diversified beyond writing code to include the provision of services, acquisition of smaller innovative firms, and a focus on collaborative, standards-based development. Standards and standard-setting are particularly important for business models that mix open and proprietary software. Standards provide the basis for the collaboration. While there is general consensus that “open” standards are best – as they expand the scope for collaboration and innovation – there is less consensus on what qualifies as open. Software designed to an open standard can be either proprietary or open source. The result is a complex mix of issues involving intellectual property and competition. The open standards discussion exhibits some of the same tensions (but not the same degree of heat) as the open source debate. We have not counted open standards initiatives unless, in our view, they embodied a de facto requirement to use open source software.
By mid-2008, a majority (70%) of the open source initiatives we found were described as completed. Final action had been taken on 193 of the 275 open source policy initiatives. One hundred seventy-seven were approved and sixteen rejected (decisions remain pending for the rest). Since our last survey, we found only twenty-three new open source policy initiatives around the world. Our estimate is that the open source debate is being subsumed into a search for business models that can profitably blend open and proprietary processes and products.”

Worth a look … and a discussion …

JY

Jonathan

With a friend, few years ago, we wanted to create a picture, a logo, a mascot to represent what we thought were the values of Open Source.

While I was writting the values on a piece of paper, a novel I had read long time ago came to my mind : Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.

Let me tell you about it.

One day, Jonathan is met by two gulls who take him to a “higher plane of existence”, where he meets other gulls who love to fly. He discovers that his sheer tenacity and desire to learn make him “a gull in a million”. Jonathan befriends the wisest gull in this new place, named Chiang, who takes him beyond his previous learning, teaching him how to move instantaneously to anywhere else in the universe. The secret, Chiang says, is to “begin by knowing that you have already arrived”.

Not satisfied with his new life, Jonathan returns to Earth to find others like him, to bring them his learning and to spread his love for flight. His mission is successful, gathering around him others who have been outlawed for not conforming. Ultimately, one of his students, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, becomes a teacher in his own right and Jonathan leaves to continue his learning.

Now, you understand why I have chosen this picture.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog written in Globish.

The is about Balance, Yin and Yang, Business & Share, Individual and Collective Interests. It is about new Behaviors, new Motivations in a fast changing World.

As Lao Tzu said : “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step”

JY