Why We Openour Code Bertrand Delacrétaz

Bertrand DelacrétazSenior Developer, R&D, Day Software, www.day.com

Apache Software Foundation Memberhttp://grep.codeconsult.ch - twitter: @bdelacretaz - bdelacretaz@apache.org

transfersummit.com, Oxford, June 2010

slides revision: 2010-06-23original image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vermininc/2777441779/

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Why we open source99% 95% 89%most of our code

Why We Openour Code Bertrand Delacrétaz

Why would a successful commercial

software vendor open source most of their code?

in the old times:code vault and fences

keep oursecrets!

hide ourugly code...

no outside ideas!

ugly code flourishes

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this is

2010and this is

The Webno company is an island...

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open source

@Day?

Basel, Switzerland headquarters(~80 people, ~150 worldwide)

Munich

London

NewportBeach, CA

Toronto

Survived tough times (SWX:DAYN)Roy T. Fielding and David Nuescheler,

“Mr. REST” and “Mr. JCR”

“Day allows us to quickly and reliably deliver content to our entire McFamily, helping us to be flexible and drive new opportunities.”

Steve Wilson, Senior Director of Web Communications, McDonald’s

Strong ties to the Apache Software Foundation

(everything is content)

content-centricproducts

www.day.comnote the 3-letter domain name: we’ve been doing this for a while...

Swiss open sourceaward / business / 2008

2001

2009

2001

storagecomponents

OSGi framework(Apache Felix)

JCRcontent

repository

javascript

JSPRuby

Velocityetc..

debugger

WebDAVserver

Sling OSGiconsole

browserfilesystem

JSR-170 API

HTTP

resource resolution

custom servletsand components

JSR 223 scripting

servlet/script resolution

standardservlets

content administration UI

CQ5architecture

OSGi framework(Apache Felix)

JCRrepository

javascript

JSPRuby

Velocityetc..

debugger

WebDAVserver

Sling OSGiconsole

browserfilesystem

JSR-170 API

resource resolution

JSR 223 scripting

servlet/script resolution

standardservlets

storagecomponents

custom servletsand components

content administration UI

HTTP

open source?you bet!

Why We Openour Code

LOCof our open source core parts

full java and xml source code files

238’000625’000513’000

Why We Openour Code

criticalityof our open source core parts

(based on the scientific «finger in the air» method)

15%25%50%

90%

open source @Day?

YESdefinitely

Why We Openour Code

but

Why?

having the best team is not enough, you need to be fast!

clean architecture and modularity enables agility for our customers.

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Why We Openour Code

ok, but

are we the bestanyway?

Why We Openour Code

Day’s R&D team(highlights)

Roy T. Fielding and David Nuescheler,“Mr. REST” and “Mr. JCR”

Thomas Mülleroriginal author

Hypersonic SQL and H2 databases

Carsten Ziegeler, Felix Meschberger, Jukka Zitting

VPs, Apache Excalibur, Sling and Jackrabbit

(among other fun things)

and quite a few other peopleof this caliber...

Why We Openour Code

we’re not bad, but still,

more eyeballsfrom more places

help a lot!open sourcing our crown jewels

makes us stronger.

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Why We Openour Code

Expert Group:

JSR-170 JSR-283

Content Repository for JavaTM technology API v2.0Spec-Lead:Day SoftwareStatus: Final Release 14-sept-2009

BTW:

being spec lead for JCR also helps

open source @Day?

YESwe need the help!

Why We Openour Code

ok but what’s the

impact?

impact on quality:very high!

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more eyeballs

more use cases

more users of all kinds

more opinionated developers

impact on structure:very high!

reuse requires cleaner structures

more use cases -> generalization

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impact on reputation:high!

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(and mistakes) in public...

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impact on sustainability: high!

Apache community best practices...

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impact on people networking:

high!

Why We Openour Code

ok, ok, so can we

tracethat impact on Day’s business?

SWX:DAYN share price, 2003-2010not the absolute truth about everything, but still...

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win-win-winfor our users, communities

and business

conclusion: win-win-win

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users and communityconversations

higher code quality better structuresand modularity

...and good business

This slide deck is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3 license.

Copyright (C) 2010, Bertrand Delacretaz