innovation communities

Innovation and Online Communities

Telefónica – Ambassadors of InnovationMadrid, Oct 18th, 2007

Víctor R. Ruiz<[email protected]>

http://rvr.typepad.com/

mailto:[email protected]

Innovation and Online CommunitiesTelefónica – Ambassadors for Innovation

About me

IT Consultant and blogger Creator of Blogalia.com, first blog community/

software “made in Spain” (2002) Creator of Blogometro, open source

“attention” engine (2003)


Things I like

open source blogs linux

astronomy science

social networks web 2.0writing usability copyleft


What online communities mean to me

I live in Canary Islands I discovered Internet in 1994 and created my

first web site on 1995 (still alive) My business partners and most of my friends

belong to my online social network Internet is my hyperlink to the World


In the beginning...


Cathedral


Bazaar


Non-profit Open Source Communities


Debian

Linux distribution Founded in 1992 by Ian Murdock Debian Social Contract Debian Foundation

− Non-profit− Democratic


Debian Community

1,040 volunteers/developers +10,000 packaged programs Communication tools

− Mailing lists, IRC− CVS, FTP, Bug trackers− Some blogs (planet)


Debian

Debian is one of the oldest open source communities

Reputation of solid software Many other projects are based and inspired on

it− Ubuntu


Gnome

Desktop Environment for Linux Set of APIs, developer guidelines and programs Founded in 1998 by Miguel de Icaza Gnome Foundation

− Democratic− Inspired in Debian organization


Gnome


Gnome

Many indepedent projects Communication tools

− Mailing lists− IRC− CVS− Bug trackers− News sites− Blogs & Wikis


Gnome

Sponsored by Sun, IBM, Novell, Intel, Nokia, RedHat and many others

Very active community, open to business Gtk+ API is increasingly popular

− OpenMoko: Mobile phones


Mashups for Innovation:Corporations +

Open Source Communities


Nokia

OpenSource projects− PythonS60,

WebKitS60...− Controlled by Nokia− Mailing lists, CVS, Bug

tracker, Wiki


Nokia: Maemo

TabletPC: N770/N800 GNOME API's + Debian packaging Very open development platform Hired active GNOME hackers Community tools

− Mailing lists, IRC, Bug tracker, Wiki, Planet


Nokia

Only Maemo community show solid results Nokia publicy recognizes the value of its

opennes as opposed to Apple's iPhone.− And it's totally true.

Is it enough? (Symbian, etc)


Sun

Founded in 1982 “The Network is the Computer” Computer and software sellers

− SPARC proccessors− Server and stations− Solaris operating system− Java development platform

Facing an increasing Linux competition


Sun: Let's become “Linux-like”

1999: StarOffice / OpenOffice.org 2000: GNOME as default Desktop 2005: OpenSolaris

− Open Source code + Community− June 2007: 60,000 registered users− Project Indiana: Ian Murdock

2007: OpenJDK− Open Source version of Java


Sun's communities

Same tools of open source projects− Mailing lists− IRC− Bug trackers− CVS/SVN− Blogs− Wikis


Sun's communities

OpenSolaris− At first, Sun

controlled the community

− 2006, gave powers to independent group

OpenSolaris Governing Board

− “Constitution” in progress


Sun: Not enough open?

2005: OpenSPARC.net− Open Source UltraSPARC specification + community

Blogs for Sun's employees Jonhatan Swchartz' Blog (Sun's CEO)


Sun

Sun contributions to open source are impressive

OpenOffice.org is not a successful open source project (hard to contribute)

Holds big influence on key open source projects

Big communities around its company and projects


How to Build a Community


Community HOWTO

Social software (blogs, wikis...) can promote feedback from inside and from outside the company

But...


Community HOWTO

1. Open yourself− Internal blogs− External blogs

Be part of the blogosphere Read what people are saying about you

− Other tools for B2C communication (bug trackers, etc)


Open yourself: Channel9

Microsoft Web 2.0 developer community

− Video interviews− Wikis− Blogs− Forums− Screencasts− ...only for employers.


Open yourself: Channel 9 Doctrine

«1. Channel 9 is all about the conversation. Channel 9 should inspire Microsoft and our customers to talk in an honest and human voice. Channel 9 is not a marketing tool, not a PR tool, not a lead generation tool».



«2. Be a human being. Channel 9 is a place for us to be ourselves, to share who we are, and for us to learn who our customers are».



«3. Learn by listening. When our customers speak, learn from them. Don't get defensive, don't argue for the sake of argument. Listen and take what benefits you to heart».


Community HOWTO

2. Open your products and services− Through easy APIs

Mashups− Open sourcing

Beware: big projects are hard to open source successfully (OpenOffice, Mozilla)


Community HOWTO

3. Use and fund open source projects− Become part of the community− Hire open source hackers


Final Remark


That's all, folks!

innovation communities

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