open-source-business-practices.md

title	osem_url	beginning	end	resources	presenters
Open Source Business Practices	https://osem.seagl.org/conferences/seagl2021/program/proposals/819	2021-11-06T14:00:00.000-07:00	2021-11-06T14:30:00.000-07:00	internet_archive_identifier SeaGL2021-Jim_Hall-Open_Source_Business_Practices	name affiliation osem_url gravatar_id biography Jim Hall The FreeDOS Project https://osem.seagl.org/users/751 6806d30d722e44cb76a923ac27152047 Jim Hall is an open source software developer and advocate. His first contribution to open source was in 1993, with a patch to GNU Emacs. Since then, Jim has authored, contributed to, or maintained dozens of open source projects. In addition to writing open source software, Jim also works with usability testing in open source software. Major projects include: FreeDOS and GNOME

The Open Source Initiative partnered with Brandeis University to deliver a series of micro courses about open source software. This Open Source Technology Management program includes several sub-topics. In early 2021, Jim taught the micro courses about Open Source Business Practices and how to Establish an Open Source Program Office.

This talk will share highlights from Open Source Business practices, including how organizations can use open source to run their business, pros and cons of licenses, and engaging with the community.

For example, a business might include open source software as part of their overall stack, such as in a Cloud offering. Or a business might include code licensed under a permissive license like BSD, to build a proprietary product. Or a business might release a proprietary product as open source software. Or they might use open source in some other way. This micro course helped people understand the issues in using or adopting open source, and how to do it right. (A key point in the course was "If you use open source to run your business, you should invest in that open source software." Don't just take; you need to contribute back.