Making the Business Case for Contributing to Open Source
summary
Companies actually use open source heavily — a 2018 Black Duck audit finds 96% of apps contain open source and open source often makes up over half a codebase. Contributing buys concrete returns: commoditizing complements (Android, Chromium, Linux), cost savings (the Open Compute saved billions claim), and developer funneling (GitHub acquisition for Azure). Operational wins include upstreaming fixes to remove technical debt and community-built tools like React Router and Redux that teams adopt and hire from; risks are usually manageable if firms start small.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Intro
- 1:00The numbers
- 1:52Why contribute
- 2:58The problem
- 3:54Purpose
- 5:47Strategic Benefits
- 9:07Operational Benefits
- 11:26External Contributions
- 12:23Second Order Benefits
- 16:35Tilting the Scales
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