Companies and communities have different goals, different structures and different challenges. That said, many of the largest and most successful free and open source software projects rely on a combination of both — to create new code, address bugs and plan for the future of their codebase. A little more understanding could go a long way towards a more harmonious and efficient working relationship. With one speaker from the company side and one from the community side, we plan to explore this occasionally prickly relationship from both directions.
This talk will discuss the differences between companies and communities that can lead to friction, confusion and missed opportunities. In order to build a sustainable future for free and open source software, we’re going to need to get more comfortable with each other. Attendees will walk away with tactics for fostering better understanding, suggestions for initiatives that can be put into practice in their own projects and some inspiration for what these two entities could accomplish if they were committed to working together on the future of FOSS.