Enterprises have always played a very important role in the open source community, whether as contributors or users, they have a decisive influence. In fact, foreign companies have gone faster and farther than domestic companies in OSPO (Open Source Program Office). As early as 2000, Sun established the first OSPO; in 2004, Google established its own OSPO, which was also the first batch of OSPOs established. Subsequently, well-known technology companies such as Microsoft, Adobe, Netflix, and Intel followed up, and the popularity was rapid. In recent years, with the establishment of major Internet companies such as Huawei, Tencent, and Baidu, open source offices have gradually become popular in China.
"In recent years, the word 'open source' has become very popular, but open source is not a silver bullet. It is necessary to combine the needs of the enterprise and consider clearly what problems the enterprise expects open source to help solve. At present, the construction of open source ecology is more in China. Commercialization still has a lot to explore.” Jiang Ning, director of the Apache Software Foundation in 2022 and technical expert at Huawei’s Open Source Management Center, said in an interview with the Rainforest Open Source Tour.
In 2000, Tim O'Reilly first proposed the concept of InnerSource, that is, internal open source (hereinafter referred to as internal source). Innersourcing is the application of open source methodologies to development projects within an enterprise, incubating the same capabilities within the enterprise as within the open source community, and facilitating new employee-to-employee relationships across functions and across multiple product areas.
"The scope of OSPO's responsibilities can be very large, but which one to do first and how to do it, I think it is strongly related to the staffing, the stage of the enterprise, and the degree of management cognition. Take WeBank as an example. For example, WeBank’s open source started from compliance, and after gradually promoting external open source, it continued to promote internal open source, divided into consensus, common knowledge, and joint construction. The logic is very clear.” Architect of the Fourth Paradigm , Tan Zhongyi, vice chairman of the Open Atom Open Source Foundation TOC , said.
As far as China is concerned, internal source is still a new thing, but major domestic manufacturers are actively promoting internal source. Huawei, Tencent, and Baidu have all achieved certain results in the promotion of internal source.
Baidu, which was only a user of open source projects at the beginning, proposed a platform thinking strategy in 2013 and began to practice "internal open source". In 2014, in order to identify outstanding talents, reduce repeated development, improve code quality and R&D output efficiency, Huawei proposed and began to practice internal source. In June 2019, Tencent announced the establishment of an open source management office, and announced its own open source strategic roadmap. Tencent's open source is divided into "three steps", and the first step is internal open source collaboration.
"In general, the benefits of internal sources can be divided into several points: avoiding repeated development, and not spending time reinventing the 'wheel'; sharing exchanges, everyone joins in, concentrates on solving problems, discussing technologies, and participating in construction. Whether it is From the perspective of improving the company's overall technical capabilities and improving production efficiency, it is very good." Jiang Ning said in an interview with Yulin Kaiyuan.
In recent years, the domestic open source ecology has developed rapidly, playing an increasingly prominent role in promoting technological innovation, promoting industrial collaboration, and accelerating the digitalization process of various industries, and has become one of the important ways for basic software innovation and development. However, there are still many risks in the process of using, participating in or leading open source projects by enterprises or individuals. Tan Zhongyi emphasized, "The most basic task of OSPO is to formulate policies and process specifications related to open source compliance, improve tools and consider how to better maintain it, not only compliance, but also efficiency. , safety and other issues.”
For enterprises, embracing open source is a long-term principle. In the process of participating in open source, compliance and security are the bottom line, and it is also something that all enterprises need to pay attention to. Rainforest Open Source Tour (Phase 2) invited Huawei OSPOer Gao Kun as the moderator, Tan Zhongyi, 4Paradigm Architect and TOC Vice Chairman of the Open Atom Open Source Foundation, and Jiang Jiang, Director of the Apache Software Foundation in 2022 and Technical Expert of Huawei Open Source Management Center During the one-and-a-half-hour interview, the two guests, Ning, discussed how to do a good job in OSPO in terms of OSPO's history, development status, responsibilities (business scope), and the excellent practices of Huawei, Tencent, and Baidu .
For the convenience of viewing, we divided the one and a half hour interview video into three sections (top), (middle) and (bottom), and marked the highlights. The following is the interview video, it is recommended to watch it under WiFi conditions:
PART 01 viewing address:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1HR4y1R78L/
Highlights of PART 01:
03:25: The origin of OSPO and its progress at home and abroad
14:57: The development status of OSPO in China
19:15: Responsibilities of OSPO (Scope of Business)
PART 02 viewing address:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ER4y1R7hL/
Highlights of PART 02:
04:55: Huawei's excellent internal source practices
18:00: Tencent and Baidu’s excellent practices in Neiyuan
22:18: Message to Open Source Rainforest (Tan Zhongyi)
PART 03 viewing address:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1hG411j7tK/
Highlights of PART 03:
03:49: Expectations for China's open source and OSPO development
22:28: Message to Open Source Rainforest (Jiang Ning)
*The thoughts and opinions expressed in the above video only represent the personal views of the speakers
With the continuous innovation and development of science and technology, the important value of open source technology has become increasingly prominent, and it has become the key to the transformation and development of enterprises. In recent years, thanks to policy support, the rapid development of the software industry, and the continuous accumulation of talents in the software industry, China's open source software industry has begun to take shape, and has very large development space and potential.
Open Source Rainforest joins hands with various co-construction units, upholds the original intention and starting point of open source, builds a knowledge system around the three major aspects of open source general knowledge, open source use, and open source contribution, and provides cooperation in three aspects: teams, mechanisms, and projects. Share it with enterprises, promote the continuous development of the open source field, change in the beginning, grow in the change, establish a healthy and prosperous open source ecology, and let more high-quality open source projects grow and flourish in China and go to the world.