1. Lars Kurth
Community Manger, Xen Project
Chairman, Xen Project Advisroy Board
Director, Open Source, Citrix lars_kurth

2. 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

4. 0
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

6. Late 90’s
Today
Individuals & Hobbyist's Still about Individuals
But, a majority are employees
Companies have a huge stake

7. and pressure to succeed

8. Features
How many users you have
How many vendors back you
How you are seen in the press
…
Different Management
Disciplines

9. can help you succeed

10. Neutrality / Perception
Support Infrastructure
Expertise / Mentoring
Vendor Network
…
BUT: You still need to do
all the right things

12. Case Study

13. 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, 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

14. 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

16. Unwritten Rules
Undefined Roles
Lack of Upfront
Collaboration

17. Hard to join the project
Vendors got frustrated
Hard to work with the
project

18. 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
releaseGrowth potential
was limited early
Xen becomes
LF Collaborative Project

19. 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

20. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. Improved Relationships & Trust
Xen Developers Care about Users
Xen becoming easier to use
Improved Image in the media and FOSS community

26. 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

28. 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
Xen Books
Competing Projects Excelled at Communication
Change of Guard
Empty Promises
Blog 1 Person

29. 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

30. 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

31. Project perception has changed
Neutral to positive
No more “Xen is not OSS / Xen is Dead”
New influx of people to the project
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
2010 2011 2012 2013 (H1)
Talks / Events / Orgs

32. Increase in Goodwill in the FOSS Community
No more Xen bashing
Significant increase in social media activity
Linux Foundation Expertise
Press Releases and other LF channels
Managing Events
Xen Project Advisory Board : Marketing and PR Committee

34. CompaniesCommunity

35. 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 FOSS
Amongst companies supporting the project financially
Forced decision makers in contributors to go through a similar process

37. 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

38. 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, …

39. Multi-discipline Complexity

41. 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

42. 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!

43. 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

44. 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

45. 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”

47. 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

48. 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
ValuesCollaboration
Ease of Use
WebSite Documentation Getting Started
Governance Neutrality Business Opportunities
Press Social Media Brand
ARM + Mirage OS
Event Presence CommunicationEvent Presence Communication
Diversity
NOW

49. 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
ValuesCollaboration
Ease of Use
WebSite Documentation Getting Started
Governance Neutrality Business Opportunities
Press Social Media Brand
ARM + Mirage OS
Event Presence CommunicationEvent Presence Communication
Diversity
NOW
(areas that so far
benefited from
being in the Linux
Foundation)

50. To succeed, a wide range of “community” and
“management” tools
need to be applied continuously

52. More info at: xenproject.org

53. Please rate the talk
on slideshare or twitter
www.slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr/

54. Flickr:
“Messy Apartment” by Ryo Chijiiwa
“The Ivory Tower” by Daniel Parks
“Desert Road 9” by LabyrinthX
“Cottob Plant” by Aileen
“Gigant 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