As more and more organizations adopt open source initiatives and/or seek to mature their involvement in open source, the OSPO movement is expanding across industries and regions of all types and sizes. Due to the wide range of responsibilities and ways to operate, OSPO professionals usually find it difficult when it comes to implementing OSPO best practices, policies, processes, or tools for their open source management efforts. To help people with these challenges, the TODO Group is introducing a new framework for in-person OSPO workshops. The framework is publicly available in ospology, a repo that encapsulates a set of initiatives open to all (including an OSPO mindmap, virtual global & regional meetings, an OSPO discussion forum, monthly OSPO News, and now, in-person OSPO workshops) to work in collaboration to study and discuss the status of OSPOs.
Piloting in Europe first, TODO is currently seeking for collaborators to bring together the various communities involved in OSPO-specific topics and thus, help organizations effectively implement OSPO Programs based on specific region needs.
Let’s look now at the OSPOlogy.live framework.
OSPOlogy.live framework in a nutshell
- Follows an unconference style meaning it’s a participants-driven meeting
- The aim is to share openly and learn from each other under Chatham house rule and connect OSPOs with various open source communities involved in the open source activities that matter to them (e.g. os policies, tooling, standards, and community building)
- It is a 2-day in-person event, part prepared presentations, part hands-on workshop, and of course, there is space for networking.
- Is under Linux Foundation policies and code of conduct
- Participants can register their interest to receive an invite via Linux Foundation’s community platform as seats are limited.
- Location is to be provided by one of the participants for free
- Each participant pays for their own food, travel, and lodging. Lunch and dinners may be free if workshop organizers find sponsors.
Unconference style
Typically at an unconference, the agenda of the workshop portion is created by the attendees at the beginning of the meeting. Anyone who wants to initiate a discussion on a topic can claim a time and a space. OSPOlogy workshops are not fully an unconference as the first day is a series of prepared presentations, so you know what the sessions are before joining (1 or 2 will be chosen by the participants ahead of time). For Day 2, the workshops follow the unconference model. Participants vote on topics to be worked on that day. Participants may be asked to submit their topic before the workshop to accelerate/simplify the voting process.
Suggested workshop sections
OSPO USE CASES ➡️ Expert-led panels or talks to share experiences and case studies from specific OSPOs
OSPO ACCELERATORS ➡️ Presentation highlighting a specific activity within the specific project, such as outcomes of recent community activities. The aim of the presentation is to give people insights on various topics the communities are working on and get their feedback / to ask for contributions.
SHARED CHALLENGES ASSESSMENT ➡️ Description: Identify OSPO shared challenges / pain points on the OSPO Mind Map and let the audience vote for the areas of interest (working groups) for the workshop breakout groups. For instance, focus areas can be specific activities within OSPO responsibilities.
BREAK OUT SESSIONS ➡️ Define goals and identify pain points. Each break out group aims to capture their challenges for the selected focus and if possible document their experiences/solutions.
NETWORKING
Interested to becoming a collaborator?
We can’t do this alone! If you are part of an open source community involved in OSPO-specific topics or an organization willing to help with the workshop planning, schedule and/or provide a space to kick off the first meet-up in Europe, we need your help. Please contact:
- Ana Jimenez ana@todogroup.org
- Thomas Steenbergen opensource@steenbe.nl
Frequently Asked Questions
What do we mean by communities involved in OSPO-specific topics?
OSPO-specific topics range from safely using open source to license compliance, sustainability, contributing back to the community, and more. For the full list of OSPO topics please see https://ospomindmap.todogroup.org/:
- Develop and Execute Open Source Strategy
- Oversee Open Source Compliance
- Establish and Improve Open Source Policies and Processes
- Prioritize and Drive Open Source Upstream Development
- Collaborate with Open Source Organizations
- Track Performance Metrics
- Implement InnerSource Practices
- Grow and Retain Open Source Talent Inside the Organization
- Give Advice on Open Source
- Manage Open Source IT Infrastructure
Some examples of OS communities highly involved in these topics are:
- OpenChain
- SPDX
- CHAOSS
- OpenSSF
- InnerSource Commons
What are the necessary roles to set up an OSPOlogy.live workshop?
There are two ways in which you can play your part in OSPOlogy.live set up: (1) the hosting party who makes available a meeting room; and, (2) the workshop organizer/facilitator in charge of workshop activities and planning. (1) and (2) may be the same entity/individual. Further details can be found in the framework documentation.
Where can I register for the next OSPOlogy.live?
Efforts are already on the way to organize the OSPOlogy workshops in different European countries each quarter. Once collaborators and days are confirmed, registration details and schedules will be published via the OSPOlogy community platform.
For further updates, please subscribe to OSPONewsletter and join the TODO community.