Session Leader, Cat Allman, Google
Previous work at Usenix, Sendmail, Xinu

Have done previously, recordings of talks available

Responsible for awarding money for OSS: $40 mil, 6 years ago

Average grant = $5k

Takeaway: How to ask for people's time / money

• Make it as easy as possible

• Check your ego (it's uncomfortable)

• Grantors hate hurting poeple's feelings
  ** Put yourself in shoes --
  ** make sure people who are giving money / time fit with your values
  ** Better result -- people who don't fit may be angry later

• Think strategically
  ** Example: swag with tins of redhots, got good price, with a semi truck...
  ** Swag costs 3 ways: swag, shipping, storage

** w/r/t asking for time
** newbies are an investment of time, may not be worth it for your project

Can't we all get along? Sunday at 11am
Lead by Jono Bacon

Can't we all get along?

(Originally said by Rodney King in the wake of the LA riots.)

Conversations that devolve into potshots amongst people who disagree.

Biases tend to get in the way of useful conversations

Ignorance can shape your opinion, but can we get to a place where understand each other?

How can we exchange ideas and walk away as friends?

How do you deal with conflict when the person is attacking your right to life, liberty and happiness?

We're not talking about normalizing "human trash"

Trying to change an opinion vs. trying to understand their viewpoint

How do we cause groups of people to coordinate despite their identity?

50 people is the number you can work with regularly

1000 is how many people you know

Polity is "everybody who cares about the thing"

Constituency is people who care about the same things or the thing in the same way

Compromise is best when we understand what people want.

People are not their opinions.

"Friends of hunters who would rather not see animal heads in your feed" --the new slack channel

Assume good faith -- that somebody is being upfront about their perspective.
Violating fundamental human rights is not up for discussion

"You have to pick a side"

No ad hominem, when participating in conversation it's everyone's job to say "Hey, keep it classy" or "Don't go ad hominem"

It's especially important for people to call in those they agree with when they are crossing that line.

Assume that people are passionate for a reason. Try to find out more about their passion.

Civil discourse, wading through the "bullshit"

We've lost a lot of language around concession

Opinion vs. fact, lots of conflating

The dearth of true primary factual information, we don't have much access to empirical information

Empirically show the impact, bringing them to an empirical truth

The scientific method, encourages cynicism

How do we do that? Show somebody something.

Radical candor, be open. It's ok to try to change someone's viewpoint but recognize when things are getting heated and you may need to step back or bring in a moderator.

One strategy that is useful, the use of intermediaries. So you can have a quiet conversation about the sticking points.

Some tools, "Non Violent Communication" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication

Avoiding logical fallacies is super-important.

Know what a fact is, it can take a long time to get to a "fact"
Important to do your research. Get context for your numbers and information.
"Advertancy"

Winning and losing, we know how to compete but we're not as good at collaborating.
eg. If I'm not right then I'm wrong. (can be really difficult to move forward)

Trust and power exchange

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/133203.The_Gentle_Art_of_Verbal_Self_Defense

Could we as community managers be the intermediary?
Or perhaps we should be encouraging everyone to be an intermediary
and overseeing the network of intermediary

"Help me understand you"
Didn't always work because I was asking them to do the work
Try to do a little research before you ask the other person to help you understand them

"Take it off line"
Get on the phone.

In open source we're supposed to be transparent, so when we resolve offline bring back a summary
We can give people a way to save face (or not air their dirty laundry)

Reach out in private message early on
(https://theconsentcrew.org/2016/05/29/calling-in/)

Facts fly out the window when people get really heated
Decouple facts and analysis
Publicly state that you might be wrong

Declare bankruptcy, you know you're being manipulated but it happens anyway
Get yourself to a place where you don't need to have the last word

Power in discussion, empowering others give you the power
Power doesn't have to be about crushing others
It can be about mutually empowering and building each other up

Emotions... it can be really hard to separate facts from emotions.
Trying understand where they're coming from

Facts are stupid and irrelevant
If we're dehumanizing people, then we've lost.

Social media is very unnatural.
Start with civility, don't weaponize your facts

We can't all agree on what is a fact.
It's all radically contingent

Be willing to have your mind changed

"Takeaways"

Emotions trump logic and social media is designed to keep us in that high emotional state
"Put a pin in it"

Can we all go and talk to people we disagree with and model that behavior?
Let's start the mini-revolution. :)

Nurturing Global Meetups

Intro -
Volunteers to take notes (e.g. GH Issue)
< 5 min intro -- plus several topics
When I’m done, we’ll go around the table
Discuss potential topics, few min discuss each
Collective lessons learned to help us all

Self-Intro: Meetup lead Write the Docs. TW ForgeRock
Started as lone writer in office
Found community in WtD NA 2014

Found lots of others in similar situations
Started a Write the Docs Meetup here in PDX

I came to CLS, and intro’d myself: “I started a Meetup”
Twitter: “I probably broke all the rules” (https://twitter.com/ScrapHacker/status/490601221497966592)
Energized by “community” of CLS
WTD 2015 -- HOWTO start a Meetup
Today -- 37 Meetups -- Now WtD Meetup Lead,

Others here in a similar situation

Our community
Completed first conference calls
(Eastern and Western Hemispheres)
Slack-based community
Many meet at conferences
Docs on how to start meetups

Hope we can share best practices
If you organize meetups, can we stay in touch?

Topics

Promoting new Meetups

• Finding new members (increasing community engagement)
  Helping organizers help each other
• Sharing meetup ideas
• Interactive workshops
  What Makes a Great Meetup (Topics? interactive, social?)
  Nurturing Diversity (affirmative action?)
  More?

Few min on each topic, brainstorm

Publish

Community Organizing

• Saul Alinsky
• Community organizing as it's done now has been done for about 75 years
• It's quite a bit different from how it was envisioned in Alinsky's era
• There are strict techniques when doing organizing now
• Alinsky's books address neighbhorhood issues - i.e., keeping a school open
  • Very face to face
• Overlap between OSS and community organizing
  (Map these things mentally)
  • Power analysis
    • Getting effective action
    • Super connectors - people that connect to other people, they can form the connections - identify these right away
    • In many organizations you go straight to the leader and have that person go to the pulpit
    • You would go to the 'super connector' that is the person that drives fund raising
    • In OS - a Google would be a super connector, in a local community it might be a local church
    • A common cause and an ideal help unite people
  • Long term committments among people, not just short things
    • 'Okay, the feature shipped - we're done here!'
    • You are building relationships more than a cause
    • If you know your membership, you should do a survey to reevaluate to sample that you are still aligned
    • Transient nature of digital communities (click unsubscribe and you are gone) makes it hard to keep people engaged
      • Have strong connections between people horizontally
      • Definitely think about implementing a hierarchical structure
    • Assigning roles and jobs allows people to feel more engaged
  • How to choose what you are going to do, what are your criteria
  • What works?
    • If you start 5 projects a year, but only 2 succeed - then your community will fall apart
    • Poll your membership to find out what matters to them. What makes them come out in the evening? Write a letter to the congressman?
    • Something that is winnable and actionable.
    • Like a SMART goal (Specific Measurable Actionable Realistic and Timely)
    • The community is the product too - and they become more invested
    • Keep focused activity,
    • We and us verbiage - everyone feels like they are included in the process
    • Seek consensus - but not unanimity
  • Defining the problem is the connectors and organizers, defining the solution is the group
  • Show people that they've milestones
    • 'Hey, we hit 15% membership from contributors from an underrepresented background! Let's keep going!'
  • Personalizing the target of the action - surveys, sampling the userbase and target your goal to that sample

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KPjiiIb-mrJgQtxwngpN-XeNMUmaZQ4Wh7PG4oXB2ck/edit

Unconference discussion:
Being a Good Ally. Or...so, you’re a white guy that wants to help.
Led and facilitated by: Jaice Singer DuMars.
Notetaker: Swarna Podila.

Consider diversity as a critical factor in open source communities. Being empathetic to others’ experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds and being compassionate to others is important.

It is not just white men that feel like they’re in a tricky situation; there are others that feel like an imposter.

Servant leadership

People’s needs and voices must be included while drafting code of conduct and community guidelines.

Watch out for “white saviour” behavior.
Watch out for “predatory allyship” and encourage safe reporting.

Understand motivations:

• As an ally (white male, for example), what are your motivations? Are you genuinely trying to help? Or are you presenting a “white saviour” behavior? Am I helping?
• Do not pretend to be an ally.
• Look for warning signs. And bring it up with the oppressed and the perpetrator, if necessary. Always check with the victim before intervening; you may run the risk of putting the victim under the spotlight without their choice.

Distinguish and get clarity on the motivations that drive allies.
As an ally, state your intentions clearly. Be transparent. Build a trust-filled relationship. Be self-aware of how you want to help and how you can help.

Plant called Toxic Mimics (sp?). Two things that look similar with opportunistic and detrimental behavior. Toxic mimic presents itself as a regular plant and you become ill when you eat it. Similarly, look out for toxic mimics in your community or organization.

How do you balance victim’s feelings/reaction vs. keeping the community in good health? Anonymous reporting is very useful. Anonymous reporting is a double edged sword -- how do you investigate the report that is anonymous and at the same time, how do you ensure the incident doesn’t repeat?

Is allyship the same as mentoring? Is allyship the same as enforcing code of conduct?

• Folks that need allies might not need mentors. An ally can become a mentor (it does not have to be a mutually exclusive relationship).
• As an ally, you have the responsibility of sharing the burden/load of the oppressed and speaking up for them.
• There’s also a risk of putting the oppressed under a spotlight -- so when you’re an ally, beware of HOW you help them.
• As an ally, think about HOW you can help them or help the situation rather than trying to present yourself as an ally.

Demonstrate awareness and let the oppressed know you’re there to help, if needed.
Provide support - either behind or at the scene, to remediate the situation.

Victims are always afraid of the consequences of taking steps to remediate the incident. Victims are also worried about not wanting to present themselves as a victim.

Resort of justice - as an ally, you can use this for minor or major things to arrive at a resolution.

Resources:
http://www.guidetoallyship.com/
http://www.scn.org/friends/ally.html
https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Ally-Breaking-Cycle-Oppression/dp/1842772252
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1614380066/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Opening Thoughts

• People always say of the dead, “Rest in peace.” But what about the living?!

• A busy executive went to the mountain to speak with the guru.

  He said to her, “I’m so stressed out! What should I do?”

  She said, “You should meditate for 20 minutes a day.”

  He was shocked. “I don’t have time for that!”

  “Oh,” she said. “In that case, you should meditate for an hour each day.”

  • At the times in our lives that the self care is most important is when you’re least willing to take the time to do it. Doesn’t have to be an hour, but you do need to give yourself care.” Put on your mask first.

Why Perform Self-Care?

• How do we focus on being healthy? How do we sustain our bodies, brains, and minds in tech? You have the constraint of working in an industry that doesn’t always see the human side.
• Crisis can happen to anyone at any moment – death, sickness, etc can create crisis for people.

Personal Self-Care

Day-to-Day

Think of self-care in terms of a hierarchy of needs: physical, mental spiritual. Use this hierarchy to build up a strong foundation.

Physical Self-Care

• Use apps to help make sure that you’re doing what you need to do – enough water, the right kind of food, sleep, exercise, etc.
• More and more research shows that sleep is foundational to overall health.
  • Set up a nightly routine to ease you into sleep each night.
  • Avoid digital devices in bedroom. The bedroom is for two things, both starting with "S." One is "sleep;" the other is not "social media." :)
  • Be careful of blue light from devices, as it can harm your circadian rhythm.

Mental Self-Care

• The human mind is optimized for a cycle of engagement and relaxation; pace yourself!
• Perform a wellness inventory for aspects of your life.
  • Identify what is and isn’t in your control.
  • When you find things you can control, give yourself permission to take control.
• Make space for yourself and develop a mindset that you’re not going to fail if you don’t bring home more work.
• Connect with nature – find what works for you and give yourself permission to do it.
  • Use it as mindfulness – 5 minutes of just thinking about nature; pause and look.
• Work on therapy, vulnerability, and developing the comfort to talk about mental health; it’s valuable to build transparency and communication.
• Take 5 minutes a day to write in gratitude journal.
  • Focus on intrinsic things and things about your community at large in addition to yourself: what you learned, promotions/recognition (even for colleagues), etc.

Social Self-Care

• Research shows that social connection is a big factor in longevity.
• Cultivate non-keyboard activities and activities with friends.
• Even low-touch social activities like emailing friends can be enormously impactful.

Getting Strategic

• When picking a job, try to keep in mind things that make it easier for you; e.g., closer workplace to cut down commute time so you have more time with friends and family.
• It takes 21 days to form a habit – take baby steps to get there.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help!
• In tech, we’re pressured to think we have all the solutions all the time. Remember that it’s okay to not know.
• Create a routine now with friends/accountability partners that sustains you. When you have a down period, the momentum of the routine will help drive you forward/help friends pull you forward.
• During hectic times when you can’t slow down: eat good food, get the best sleep you can. Afterwards, let yourself “hibernate” a bit (TV time counts)!
• Connect with coworkers outside the office – lunches, walks, etc.
• When working from home, take care to take your breaks and lunches!

Self-Care Advocacy at the Corporate/Management Level

Problems with Self-Care in Tech

• In tech, working long hours is a badge of honor, whereas “self-care” is literally two four-letter words.
• People think that taking time for self-care will make you less productive, when the opposite is true.

Implementing Self-Care at the Org Level

• At the organizational level, encourage people to set boundaries at work and empower them to say no when they need to.
• Make self-care tools accessible: courses, meditation, exercise, naps, etc.
• Provide apps to help employees track sleep, movements, etc.
• Meet people where they are – encouraging everyone to meditate for an hour is all well and good, but building a culture of self-care is about realistic baby steps in the right direction.
• Create a culture where your community asks you how you’re doing and encourages you to do what you need for yourself.
  • The culture and the community need a set of shared norms. These norms build slowly but break quickly.
  • Align all the feedback loops pushing together so that they drive in the same direction.
• Model good self-care.
  • If your boss texts you on evenings/weekends and expects you to be on 24/7, you’ll burn out trying to meet that unspoken expectation.
  • If your boss puts clear boundaries around their own personal life, personal time, breaks, and so on, employees are galvanized to do the same.
  • Google’s VP of People Development took 6 months to care for her family and organization supported her.
  • Practice good self-care for yourself, and encourage/expect good self-care from your reports.
• Mandatory courses might not make sense, but if a self-care course is good, people will pass it around.
• Walking one-on-ones encourages a touch base while also getting exercise, contact with natures, and informal interactions between managers and reports.

Recommendations

Books

• Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakeable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness by Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
• Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love by Richard Shierdan
• The Way We’re Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs that Energize Great Performance by Tony Schwartz

Films

• May I Be Happy

Websites

• Blue Zones

Apps

• Unwinding Anxiety
• WoeBot

Institutions

• Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center
• Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17TGhCbeo2lXwtgkD35KucCDhjTDreDMqIbFCKmRTRck/edit

How do you determine whether a CoC applies on social media or not? What is the scope of CoCs?

-Jaice from Kubernetes found it useful to call out individual spaces that have their own rules of engagement. However, there are some acts that transcend spaces.
-Contributor Covenant
-Social media policies for employees
-leaders set the tone for the culture in your community
-havng a good reporting policy
-open source and a couple other areas have this kind of problem where people are acting socially and professionally and that makes it much more confusing
-scope - Kubernetes has told people that based on past behavior they are not participating
-the term for scope in the military is "integrity" - and you have just one shot at integrity.

How do you integrate a CoC into culture? How can we be welcoming?
-CoC at Mozilla lists positive behaviors first
-Kubernetes uses the phrase "unwelcoming" behavior - being unwelcoming to newcomers affects diversity.
-being unwelcoming is also a specific example of a behavior that's an overall problem - you have to be able to constructively deal with things that are broken, because everything is broken in OSS all the time.

How do you crowdsource warning people?
-Sage prefers to take away the judgement term reported/reporter
-People in our community champion the code of conduct
-However, the culture is confused between political speech, hate speech, and free speech, and our CoCs cannot be.
-Mob justice doesn't work, but loving callouts do.

How do you scale codes of conduct?
-Kate has a scale survey at mzl.la/OSCON18
-Publicly reporting code of conduct issues - disclosure in an aggregate sense - Paris from Kubernetes & Kate from Mozilla are working on this

There’s No Place Like Home: How Do We Provide Organizational Homes to FLOSS Communities? – Bradley Kuhn, Software Freedom Conservancy

FLOSS initiatives usually need an organizational home. There are many trade-offs in deciding how to chose or create one, and projects’ needs differ greatly. Let’s explore what organizational homes should do in this session.

Why charities?

• Mostly worked in US
• Transparency with IRS

They have a legal obligation to act in the public interest.

• Rules against misappropriation of 501c(3) funds

Two other forms of orgs that end up acting as fiscal homes

#1:
501c(6): Trade associations: Act in common business interests of members
Collect dues to get $
e.g. Chamber of Commerce, Portland Business Alliance

#2:
For-profit company

Lots of different upsides and downsides

1901 association in France

• French tax benefit is credit, instead of deduction, so get lots of funding
• Rules for how they spend that $, but they must spend the $ France

Germany - EV
More like a club or 501(c)7
More like a 501c(4) (these are lobbying orgs)
Strict rules

• Document foundation (home of LibreOffice)

SW in the Public Interest
Associated with Debian
Very lightweight: Donations & travel expenses

Different sponsors have different rules

Different sponsors have different levels of support

B-Corp
e.g. All Things Open
Some component is for betterment of world

Different projects belong in different homes. Good to have many options. Not just company, trade association.
Concern about organization proliferation & capacity problems
Conservancy often being imitated

Q: In a model where you have an umbrella org managing many projects, how are the finances between projects compartmentalized?

• Conservancy has an earmarked fund for salary ~10%. 90% spent based on council, unless it doesn't align with org mission
• Apache goes into general fund & projects apply
• LF is fee for service. Project pays LF.

Q: Governance related to IP for project or project itself (change incoproration)

• Conservancy has rule where charity can't just buy stuff for 1 person. Try to model governance or need to mentor on how to do governance.

• Charity is a funny way to get a govt grant

• Apache has a specific governance model for their projects. One size fits all.

  • Easy to start with Apache

  • Bit harder to make it align with the culture. Easier with Conservancy

• Linux Foundation: Depends on who the companies giving the $. This is based on business interest.
  Services that each project derives from LF:
  https://www.linuxfoundation.org/projects/hosting/

Q: Friend just set up 501(c)3 for his project, but maybe he could have done different. What are the tradeoffs?

Q: Can a charity have engineering team on staff, writing SW?
Goal has to be in public interest
e.g. Wikimedia
Mozilla is a more complicated example, not good for discussing in this session
Tor (The Onion Router) accepts gov't contracts for development
Ethereum Foundation pays developers

Q: Can a charity do govt contracts?
Tor.org is 501(c)3
There is rule for max overhead

Q: Can LF projects use funds not under LF?
They do
LF leans on common resource across projects (like business)

CloudFoundry takes advantage & pays for certain

LF doesn't hire engineers to work on CloudFoundry. The project itself decides.

LF core infrastructure initiative contracts out to individual devs out of the $ collected by members of project
Greg & Linus are employed of LF

Q: Does LF document guidance publicly?

501(c) status orgs must file 990 form >$100K or principal decision maker salary, and/or(?) top 5 contractors
Helps you figure out how much a non-profit might pay you if you want to work there
You can find many on Charity Navigator
Must provide on request for last 3 years
IRS has a CD set you can order of the 990s
FSF & Mozilla Foundation post theirs

From the IRS:
https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/form-990-part-vii-and-schedule-j-reporting-executive-compensation-individuals-included

A GitLab project
Goal: Put for any OSS-related org that they came across

Is an org obliged to provide 990 beyond 3 years? No

Finding a home:
- What do you want for your project? Look at what services you need for your project & how much it will cost you
- Having a home can benefit an org of even 5-6 ppl

    - Can access certain things via home (e.g. test phones)

- Can address mailing list concerns

- Putting $ into an individual's bank account is a terrible idea ("co-mingling") - 50% of projects that end up at Conservancy

FLOSS Foundations
https://flossfoundations.org/

• Mailing list for different non-profits

TLDR; Legal -> Boils down licenses to digestable level.
https://tldrlegal.com/
Choose a license.org
Choose a foundation.org -> The decision is probably more nuanced
http://chooseafoundation.com/help

How could we make this info digestable?

• Put it where ppl already are:
  GitLab or Github mini site with a topic on when you should consider setting up an org
• Literature that projects could share with their models
• Case studies

When do you pursue opportunity for clients?

• Do you really want to do all the things as 1 person that a 5 person business would have separate roles for?
• What are the goals for your project?

Michael tried to catalog known sponsors/homes

How do you move from business to non-profit?

• Have to talk to a lawyer & an accountant, so that they can assess your situation
• e.g. Open House
• Easier to go from business to non-proft
• Charity has to be careful about how remaining assets are spent -- 501(c)3 "black hole"

JQuery decided they didn't want to operate as a charity

• (c)3 winds down involvement, then (c)6 picks up
• Found a solution where Conservancy let them set up a 501(c)6 and then sold them
• Remaining $ supported javascript in charitable way
• Stopped accepting donations for JQuery

Rival projects under same umbrella?

• Mercurial, Git, Darcs are all under Conservancy. Seems to be going fine.
• They don't get to say "help us & not them"
• Apache Foundation explicitly states they support competing projects b/c their mission is to be a neutral ground

We don't want to create a competitive market between foundations. Not productive.
e.g. Universities spend a lot on pretty buildings
Conservancy doesn't give office space

Moving between different fiscal sponsors
Better if project can figure it out up front, but project needs to find their right home.

CLS: 2018-07-14 Session 1, 11:45 AM
Handling Big Changes, lead by Deb Nicholson

Notes

What are strategies for communicating and planning response to big changes in an org?

Minimization?

Ultimatum?

Other things?

Actively work with projects to document a plan

To alleviate concerns

Getting people to take a look at their own future with the change


How do we get a voice? 

"Calling in before calling out" as a strategy. Working informally to communicate ways to get in front of the change, propose some concrete action (such as meetings) to help either prepare for the change or maybe avoid it altogether.

Have public meetings to share viewpoints in both directions, and let people react to the proposed change. Work toward compromise based on what concerns people express.

Work toward cross-department/team/group understanding. Be aware that some people or groups may be good at bringing people in early, but other people or groups (even with an organization) might not. 

Cross-team or cross-dept conversations before things go south
Have designated points of contacts or liasons to work across teams/depts
Pilot change before committing to new ways of doing things

How do you repair trust after a big change?

Designate a recurring given time for each team/group to talk about the change and how they're coping. Feedback not only among peers but up to decision makers too. Demonstrates responsiveness and listening, reacting to feedback to help people become more comfortable with the change.

Remember to have low-stress activities, fun activities, etc., for "team building" ... but not until the listening has happened.

offer people the opportunity to implement changes that they'd like to see 

Someties we're talking to and listening to the same people all the time

What about when you're building a more inclusive community and people are unhappy with what you see as "good change?"
Honesty.

Give people an opportunity to discuss big potential changes before they are implemented

Who's driving the change?
Who is a stakeholder? Who feels like they're a stakeholder?

Buy-in is important. Consensus creates a more inclusive dynamic

Longer-term goals -- that might not feel good in the short-term -- are some of the hardest things to get buy-in around

Are there any recognizable milestones for dealing with change?
Maybe you make your own.

Any kind of change can be a kind of "mini-grief"

Tying change to a high-profile objective

Community post-mortems, do surveys, being humble to your community and ask how you can improve

Sometimes people just need to be heard.

Real-time communication helps you find the potholes

Talking to your biggest supporters and your detractors

Find someone who is good (patient) to hear from detractors.

Transparency around dates and expectations is really key.
Keep people updated during a lengthy change process

Participants (14 people; opt-in with your name if you want)

Deb Nicholson (Software Freedom Conservancy) - proposer

Michael Downey (United Nations Foundation)


you

Takeaways?

No silver bullet, it will take work

The earlier you bring people in, the better

Document a plan to take control of your voice (and the voices of others) post-change

Be humble to your community and ask how you can improve

Sometimes people just need to be heard. 

Talk to key stakeholders or people who are likely to have strong opinions, ahead of time. 1-on-1 conversations may yield more than public dialogue.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MKr-r1F30zelKKGmkjOcJ65XSS9YbIY6YcESa55upBg/edit

The Open Org - Breaking Down Barriers
FREE BOOKS!
Or, download a free book at opensource.com (https://opensource.com/open-organization/resources/book-series)

If you’re interested in writing a chapter for this book, please let Jonas know at ‪@jonasrosland‬

Led and Facilitated by: Jonas Rosland
Notetaker: Swarna Podila

Open Org - utilize open source principles to create innovative and inclusive workspace. Original thought by Jim Whitehurst, CEO, Red Hat.

Open Org Ambassadors program: https://opensource.com/open-organization/resources/ambassadors-program

Discussion Focus: How did you change your orgs/teams with these open source principles? How did you break down the corporate barriers to launch an open source practice or program?

Organizations have silos, with or without open source program initiatives. 85 slack instances, hipchat, and other such proliferation of tools. Create a community of admin volunteers to break these silos (enable single sign-on, standardize tools, etc.) across engineering, QA, sales, marketing, senior management, etc.

Philosophy of open organizations: devops is not a tool; it is a culture of automation and measurement of things that matter. DevOps and Open Source have a lot in common, except that devops happens internally in an org and open source happens in a community. Both of these groups can learn a lot from each other and must interact.

Actionable practices/suggestions:
Ensure teams/developers earn their status based on how they fulfill their responsibilities. Revoke status from those that don’t deliver. This creates silos of its own, but does help scale well. This helps share knowledge across teams, share best practices, help developers keep documentation updated.
When you open up the discussions and ideas to the entire company/team, you get great perspectives from different teams on how to do things better. This also helps breed a relationship of trust and a sense of ownership during an outage. It comes with challenges (overload of slack notifications, for example) but a common slack, say, enables transparency and helps reduce redundancies when teams share their OKRs or quarterly goals on these open channels.
Roadmap on trello (with ambiguous enough timeline -- very soon, soon, later). Community gets to vote on roadmap → useful signal for product teams to get a sense of direction for product. This increases community engagement.
Send weekly notes from standups to community mailing list on monday. Reconcile on friday about things that got done, that didn’t get done, and things that got done that weren’t on the list originally, blockers, etc.

Efforts to launch an inner source program in a highly regulated company where transparency even within the organization is taboo. How do you solve for this?
The core issue is about conflicting employee goals. One way to break this barrier is to make it part of HR process to benefit both employees.
Reformulate job description on job percentages, satisfying business values.

Most of these barriers also reflect the company/community’s culture. Lack of transparency on such aspects also results in a bigger issue of repetitive incidents.

Organizations also need to shift their culture from “pointing fingers” to “blameless analysis” on incidents.

“Professional development” -- create budget (time and money) for this for your teams so that pairing/collaborating with teams results in education and helps your team in the long term.

Every project, endeavor, etc. can belong in any org, but assign a specific owner so that the work gets done.

Sharing engineering efforts across the company in these channels also gets more volunteers from teams you probably didn’t expect.

Spreading budget across teams for a shared task also helps justify collaboration.

Hackathons (internal) are a great way to come together as a company to deliver on something valuable. Aside: sales teams will also appreciate that you (engineers) can crank out something valuable in such a short time. Internal and external hackathons can also crossover to bring more collaboration across the community.

Breaking down barriers also stems from the company’s culture -- you can only change so much. So first try working on breaking those culture-related barriers and then focus on expanding these initiatives.