David Robinson, Stack Overflow at the 2017 Open Source Strategy Forum

1. The Case for Open Source:
Follow the Data
David Robinson
2017-11-08

2. Who has heard of Stack Overflow?

3. More than 20 million visits a day from
developers solving their problems

4. We know what developers ask
and when they ask it

5. We know what developers ask
and when they ask it

6. We know what developers ask
and when they ask it

7. We know what developers ask
and when they ask it

8. We know what developers ask
and when they ask it

9. We know what developers ask
and when they ask it

10. We know what technologies fit together
into ecosystems
5
Microsoft
Web
Development
Functional
Programming
C/C++
JavaMobile
API
Data Science
OS
Project
Management

11. We know what has changed over time

12. We know what developers say
matters to them

13. Here I’ll share some conclusions
about how open source software
has grown and changed

14. 5
Microsoft
Web
Development
Functional
Programming
C/C++
JavaMobile
API
Data Science
OS
Project
Management

16. A
Data Science/ ML

17. A
Data Science/ ML
A
Web Development

18. The fastest-growing languages in the
ecosystem are Python and R:
open source data science

19. “The future of data analysis” as of 1990s/2000s

25. An open source package can
change the world

26. Why did Python grow so much?

29. Another area with a lot of change
is web frameworks

32. Not every open source technology thrives.
Open source JavaScript frameworks are
characterized by brutally short lifecycles

36. Closed source technologies are polarizing

44. 33% of developers say they contribute to
open source

47. “On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are
you with your current job?”

49. Someone working with open source
contributed as much to their job
satisfaction as an extra $35,000 of salary

53. Learn more!

54. https://insights.stackoverflow.com/trends

55. https://stackoverflow.blog/insights

56. https://www.stackoverflowbusiness.com/enterprise

57. www.varianceexplained.org
@drob
Thank you
• Stack Overflow team
• Julia Silge
• Kevin Montrose
• Nick Larsen
• Jason Punyon
• Todd Lewis