Bio

Karsten is 15 year IT industry veteran, a long time Fedora Project
contributor, and general open source iconoclast.  As a member of the
industry leading open source community team at Red Hat, Karsten has
seen, done, and recovered from many open community mistakes.  Through
mistakes, learning; through learning, advancement.  By teaching
others, we improve the fabric of all open source communities.

Abstract

This keynote explains why it is critical to your business to
participate in open source projects.

If you are not participating in the upstream open source projects that
your business relies upon, you are giving control of your future to
other people.  Many of whom may be your direct or indirect
competitors.  But all of whom could be your open collaboration
friends, working together toward shared solutions.

Successful open source enterprise solutions come from successful open
source projects.  The keys to that success are contributors, but there
is another, lower barrier, high impact way to gain from open source
projects.  By turning your business and your teams into participants,
you gain an important voice in the open source projects that matter to
you the most.  By focusing mainly on those important projects, you can
turn a small investment in to a high-value return without increasing
budget or resources.

Attendees Learn

Why it is critical to participate in open source projects.

How to pick the open source projects that are closest to your core
business, i.e., that should matter the most to you.

How to plan where to put resources in which open source projects.

How to make low cost investments that are a high-value outcome for
your business.

How to measure the value of the investment.

Why to be bold and learn through mistakes.


Who should attend?

If you use open source in your business, you should attend.

If you rely upon open source solutions for your business to run, you
should attend.

If you care about the future of your business and how your chosen open
source solutions affect you, you should attend.

If you've ever thought about participating in upstream open source
projects, you should attend.

If you have had failures or been burned from participating in open
source projects, you should definitely attend.