2025-02-03, 11:25–12:15, D.Aud (Main)
You may or may not remember Steve Ballmer's famous "developers, developers, developers" cheer from the late 90's, but Microsoft has known something for a very long time that some OSS companies might learn from. When a tool or product exists in order to run third-party content -- that third-party content is the real value of your tool because without that content, there's no reason to buy the product.
Commercially supported open source projects often lose track of this real value. And all too often, they learn that hard fact after community-hostile decisions decimate their ecosystem. SaltStack learned this the hard way, so did Hashi, Chef, and others.
I'd like to talk about the idea that the ecosystem is the product and the thing that you build and sell only exists to support it. It's a subtle but important shift in mindset that I think helps keep focus on what's really important, and I'm using it to help direct the projects that I'm working on now.
Founder, Community Builder, and Developer Advocate; Ben gets to build neat things -and- talk to people! \o/
Ben is a software engineer and community leader with extensive knowledge and expertise in the Puppet ecosystem. He's honored to call many of you friend and learn from you every day. He's been organizing Linux Users Groups, run clubs, and roller derby teams for most of his adult life and even a bit before that. Before coming to Puppet, he taught Anthropology grad students how to code in Java and then used that experience to introduce Puppet to many of you.
Ben has been obsessed with collective benefit for decades and is motivated by enabling the success of others. He's been dreaming of a world in which his skills don't just feed the capitalist maw. He is a long-distance runner but isn't interested in boasting about race times; he'd rather hear how your race went for you.
He's currently building a VC-free company at https://overlookinfratech.com.
Find him online at https://hachyderm.io/@binford2k