Open Innovation: What Companies Can Learn from Open Source Communities
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This document discusses what companies can learn from open source communities based on Nethesis' experience creating an open source project. Some key lessons include: giving to the community before expecting anything in return to build trust; putting people over code and focusing on community management; being welcoming, inclusive, and transparent; listening to community feedback; and involving community members in development and support to foster innovation. Building a strong community takes time but can provide major benefits like feedback, testing, content, and word-of-mouth marketing that help products improve and companies succeed.
Open Innovation: What Companies Can Learn from Open Source Communities
- 1. Talk Title Here Author Name, Company Open Innovation: what companies can learn from Open Source communities Alessio Fattorini, Nethesis - NethServer
- 4. OPEN INNOVATION ALESSIO FATTORINI ▸ Work at Nethesis (Italy) ▸ Community Evangelist / Leader / Junkie ▸ Build Welcoming Communities ▸ Connect People and work with Open Source ▸ Prosecco Evangelist
- 6. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES SYSTEM INTEGRATORS ▸ Clear business model ▸ We added value ▸ Gave back to the upstream projects ▸ Times were different then
- 7. 2010
- 8. OPEN INNOVATION OUR OWN OPEN SOURCE PROJECT ▸ Espresso and pastry ▸ From scratch ▸ On top of CentOS ▸ Assuming that we had: experience, know-how, workforce
- 9. WE FELT SO BRAVE
- 10. WE FELT SO BRAVE AND FOOL
- 12. OPEN INNOVATION MAKING SYSADMIN’S LIFE EASIER ▸ Free to Download ▸ Openly developed ▸ Community-driven
- 13. WHY A COMMUNITY?
- 15. OPEN INNOVATION DEVELOPING IT BY OURSELVES ▸ We would have been more effective ▸ Faster decision process ▸ Like any other company ▸ But deeply into the Open Source culture
- 16. TO GO FAST, GO ALONE. TO GO FAR, GO TOGETHER. African Proverb OPEN INNOVATION
- 17. OPEN INNOVATION HOW CAN WE BUILD A COMMUNITY? ▸ Never built one ▸ Good at code not with people ▸ We were a company
- 18. HOW TO BUILD A GOOD RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND THE COMMUNITY ITSELF?
- 21. GOLDEN RULE OF COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
- 22. THERE IS NO GOLDEN RULE
- 23. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES WE LEARNED MANY THINGS ALONG THE WAY ▸ Sharing with you what we have found ▸ Be useful ▸ Avoid you some mistakes and failures
- 24. YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW THE OPEN SOURCE RULES IF YOU WANNA PLAY THE OPEN SOURCE GAME
- 25. START TO WORK OUT IN THE OPEN CONVERT IN AN OPEN COMPANY
- 26. GIVE TAKE
- 27. GIVE
- 28. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES COMPANY HAS TO GIVE FIRST ▸ Build trust ▸ Code is not enough ▸ You have to invest in people
- 29. PEOPLE OVER THE CODE PUT PEOPLE FIRST
- 30. OPEN INNOVATION NOT AN EFFICIENT SHORT-TERM STRATEGY ▸ Even if you get some quick returns ▸ Long journey and it takes time ▸ Can take months/years ▸ It pays off
- 31. OPEN INNOVATION IT’S NOT A MARKETING CHANNEL ▸ Entire different animal ▸ No direct sales ▸ Company -> Audience ▸ Member <-> Member
- 32. BETWEEN THE COMMUNITY / COMPANY CLARIFY THE RELATIONSHIP
- 33. OPEN INNOVATION BETWEEN THE COMMUNITY / COMPANY ▸ Why the org has decided to build a community? ▸ What it hopes to gain? ▸ What community will gain? ▸ Understand community needs ▸ No spaces for grey areas
- 34. OPEN INNOVATION NETHESIS AND NETHSERVER COMMUNITY ▸ Community effort founded/ supported by Nethesis ▸ Nethesis business model ▸ Revenue used to fund the development, sites, community ▸ Same target: making NethServer better and successful
- 35. BECAUSE THE COMPANY WORKS OUT IN THE OPEN AND AS PART OF THE COMMUNITY
- 36. EVERYBODY WINS
- 37. @ale_fattorini RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COMMUNITY COMMUNITY MANAGERS AREN’T SOLELY
- 38. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES HIRE A COMMUNITY MANAGER ▸ In charge of good communication between those entities ▸ Essential in the early stages ▸ Voice of the company/community ▸ Have to participate at a level that can appear disloyal
- 40. IN YOUR COMMUNITY? HOW TO SPEND YOUR TIME
- 41. OPEN INNOVATION BE WELCOMING ▸ First experience is critical ▸ Feel acknowledged ▸ Know what to do first ▸ First post -> prompt response
- 43. IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW FUN AND AMAZING YOUR PROJECT IS. IF PEOPLE DON’T FEEL SAFE THEY WONT’ CONTRIBUTE.
- 44. OPEN INNOVATION BE INCLUSIVE ▸ Create an environment where people feel safe ▸ Be humble - don’t patronize ▸ Create some rules and lead by example
- 45. @ale_fattorini
- 53. OPEN INNOVATION LISTEN TO YOUR COMMUNITY ▸ You will tempted to steer the discussion too much ▸ Be open-minded and be ready to change your mind ▸ Be ready to discuss and ask people to do the same
- 54. WHEN WE’RE CLOSE TO IDEAS, WE HEAR CRITICISM. WHEN WE’RE OPEN TO CRITICISM WHAT WE GET IS ADVICE. Simon Sinek OPEN INNOVATION, WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
- 55. OPEN INNOVATION BE OPEN AND TRANSPARENT ▸ Introducing open innovation is a huge cultural shift ▸ You will tempted to keep your discussions private. Tell your people to stop doing that. ▸ Contributors can’t actually understand what’s going on
- 56. OPEN INNOVATION TRY TO WORK OUT LOUD ▸ Share what are you working on ▸ Keep people updated on your last achievements ▸ Ask your member to do the same
- 57. IN THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS KEEP THE PEOPLE INVOLVED
- 58. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES CONCRETE WAY TO PRACTICE OPENESS ▸ Some common advice: bugs, features, roadmap completely public, pull request NOT ENOUGH ▸ A lot of development happens in code repositories and bug trackers. ▸ Not places where users hang out
- 60. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES NO SEPARATED PLACES ▸ Don’t underestimate what people can see in some discussions ▸ Give their feedback and say thank you to the devs ▸ If you separate you can’t have this kind of contribution
- 61. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES LEAD THE SUPPORT ‣ Take over the support requests ‣ Answering all the support questions it’s still not enough ‣ Can’t always be the only one who helps ‣ Train your community to answer instead
- 62. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES TRAIN YOUR COMMUNITY TO SUPPORT ‣ Call upon specific people to help other specific people ‣ Three outcomes: ‣ More inclined to participate ‣ Feel like experts ‣ Help newcomers, be thanked
- 63. TAKE
- 64. BUILDING AN OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF
- 65. THE BEST WAY TO HAVE A GOOD IDEA IS TO HAVE A LOT OF IDEAS INNOVATION
- 66. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES INNOVATION ▸ Having different points of view on your product is essential ▸ How many disrupting ideas can a company create? ▸ Ability to invite the entire world to continuously improve the product
- 67. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY = IDEAS FACTORY ▸ Really leverage the power of the collective ▸ 90% of all community feedback is crap, this means 10% is gold! (J. Atwood)
- 68. REFINE THAT RAW MATERIALS INTRO PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENTS WISDOM WILL COME FROM YOUR CONTRIBUTORS
- 70. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES THE IVORY TOWER DEVELOPMENT ‣ It’s dangerous to create an environment where developers have no idea who the users are ‣ Developers assume everyone else is a developer ‣ A community brings developers back to the reality and helps to stay grounded.
- 71. OPEN INNOVATION FROM THE OUTSIDE ▸ Enable the product/company to look at itself from the outside ▸ Catch your strengths and weaknesses
- 72. NETHSERVER IS AN OPERATING SYSTEM FOR LINUX ENTHUSIASTS, DESIGNED FOR SMALL OFFICES AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE
- 74. NETHSERVER IS AN OPERATING SYSTEM FOR LINUX ENTHUSIASTS, DESIGNED FOR SMALL OFFICES AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE
- 75. NETHSERVER IS AN OPERATING SYSTEM FOR LINUX ENTHUSIASTS, DESIGNED FOR SMALL OFFICES AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE
- 76. OPEN INNOVATION ▸ Feedback OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS
- 77. OPEN INNOVATION ▸ Feedback ▸ Comparisons OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS
- 78. OPEN INNOVATION ▸ Feedback ▸ Comparisons ▸ Testing and bugs OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS
- 79. OPEN INNOVATION ▸ Feedback ▸ Comparisons ▸ Testing and bugs ▸ Content OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS
- 80. OPEN INNOVATION ▸ Feedback ▸ Comparisons ▸ Testing and bugs ▸ Content ▸ Support OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS
- 81. OPEN INNOVATION OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS ▸ Feedback ▸ Comparisons ▸ Testing and bugs ▸ Content ▸ Support ▸ Development
- 82. OPEN INNOVATION OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY BENEFITS ▸ Feedback ▸ Comparisons ▸ Testing and bugs ▸ Content ▸ Support ▸ Development ▸ Translations
- 83. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES ENABLE THE COMPANY TO GO GLOBAL ‣ We’re Italian: our wine and food ‣ Community gets the company ready to go global ‣ Forced us to study English ‣ Speak in public without being fooled by the audience ‣ First NethServer Conference
- 85. OPEN INNOVATION ▸ Holy grail of marketers: word of mouth marketing ▸ Tribal Marketing ▸ Message that go sideways from member to member ▸ Street team SPREAD THE WORD
- 86. LOYALTY IN COMMUNITY YOU’RE BUILDING CONNECTIONS WITH PEOPLE WHICH IS WAY MORE POWERFUL THAN FEATURES
- 87. IT’S MUCH MORE HARDER TO LEAVE A GROUP YOU’RE CONNECTED TO THAN FACELESS PRODUCT/COMPANY Evan Hamilton OPEN INNOVATION, WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
- 88. TAKEAWAYS
- 89. DEFINITELY TAKES SOME TIME AND RESOURCES SUPPORTING YOUR MEMBERS AND LEADING THE DISCUSSIONS
- 90. WHEN THEY LOOK AT IT AS A TACTIC COMPANIES FAIL AT COMMUNITY
- 91. A CORE PART OF THE BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY INSTEAD OF MAKING IT
- 92. OPEN INNOVATION COMMUNITY IS NOT ▸ Marketing ▸ An efficient short-term strategy
- 93. WE COULD NEVER HAVE ACHIEVED THOSE RESULTS WITHOUT OUR COMMUNITY WE EXPERIENCE THAT EVERY SINGLE DAY
- 94. WHAT COMPANIES CAN LEARN FROM OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES IT CAN DO SO MUCH MORE ▸ Completely set your business apart from every company in the field ▸ Redefine markets ▸ Inspire milions of people ▸ Give them a sense of belonging ▸ Make them feel an incredible bond
- 95. WILL ALWAYS WIN COMMUNITY-DRIVEN COMPANIES