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Securing Technology Investments

Securing Technology Investments

This is a talk I gave at EmberFest 2023 in Madrid. I talk about how the status quo of the Ember ecosystem puts investments that companies that have built on Ember have made are at risk. It also is a call to action to address those risks and together ensure a stable future for the project.

The ecosystem has been losing momentum for some years, the pace of progress has slowed down significantly and hugely important initiatives like Embroider take forever to get released.

Yet, companies have made huge investments by building on Ember for many years with large teams. The worst case scenario is having to eventually rewrite potentially. There is a simple business case for those companies to invest just a little bit more now to secure their investments and avoid potentially having to invest a huge amount later in case they indeed have to rewrite.

I present the Embroider initiative that we started with some sponsors that is a first step towards improving the situation and ensuring a stable future for Ember. My hope is we can grow that into a long-term sustainable funding model for Ember and allow companies that have invested in Ember and depend on its sustainability to actively contribute to that goal.

Marco Otte-Witte

September 25, 2023
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  1. Securing Technology
    Investments
    and Open Source Funding

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  2. Marco


    Otte-Witte
    Founder, Mainmatter
    2

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  5. Building on
    Open Source

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  6. https://unsplash.com/de/fotos/ObpCE_X3j6U

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  7. • Maintain an open source project and o
    ff
    er
    consulting and support services around it.


    • Consulting revenue funds work on the
    project.


    • The company is motivated to maintain the
    project to sustain the consulting/support
    business.
    Consulting/
    Support Business
    Models

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  8. • improve documentation


    • teach and onboard new
    contributors
    Product/SaaS
    Company
    • Use an open source project as an on-ramp
    for your product.


    • Product income funds works on the open
    source project.


    • The company is motivated to maintain the
    project to drive sales of their product.

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  9. • A group of individuals works on a project out
    of enthusiasm, shared values with the
    community, or to advance their careers.


    • The projects depend on people investing
    (part of) their spare time and lives.
    Individuals
    👩💻🧑💻👨💻

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  10. …in the worst case, we end up
    here
    https://xkcd.com/2347/
    The app your 50 people
    team build over the past
    10 years
    a project some random
    person in Nebraska has
    been thanklessly
    maintaining since 2003

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  11. • improve documentation


    • teach and onboard new
    contributors
    Risky Business
    https://unsplash.com/de/fotos/bEY5NoCSQ8s
    Big investments are based on fragile
    foundations, e.g. depending on individuals that
    could abandon projects at any time.

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  12. Ember
    The situation in

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  13. https://xkcd.com/2347/

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  14. Ember isn't a single dependency
    several levels down the stack but
    a whole ecosystem.
    https://xkcd.com/2347/

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  15. The State of the Ember
    Ecosystem, 2014-2019
    https://xkcd.com/2347/

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  16. Robert Jackson, the Atlas of the
    Ember ecosystem
    https://xkcd.com/2347/

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  17. Would you like to be part of our
    professional frontend
    framework?
    https://xkcd.com/2347/

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  18. The State of the Ember
    Ecosystem, 2023
    https://xkcd.com/2347/

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  21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Ti0szjNPE

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  23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA_ImMVU7PE

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  24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA_ImMVU7PE

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  25. Companies have built applications with Ember
    over many years with dozens or sometimes
    hundreds of engineers.
    Yet, investments
    have been made

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  26. • Hiring for Ember is hard and doesn't get
    easier.


    • Ember lacks capabilities and features other
    frameworks have.


    • Ember's tooling is lacking, making it less
    e
    ffi
    cient to work on compared to other
    frameworks.


    • Might Ember become legacy tech eventually?
    …but these
    investments are
    at risk
    https://unsplash.com/de/fotos/HWzv8HgYXPQ

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  27. Rewrite or secure
    investments that have been
    made?

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  29. Rewrite or secure
    investments that have been
    made!

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  30. If you benefit from open source
    technology, tools,
    documentation and the like,
    you should give something
    back.

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  31. Give back to open source on
    Giving Tuesday –


    Here are 18 ways to support and
    donate to free and open source
    organizations for Giving Tuesday.

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  32. 🙈🙊🙉

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  33. 💰

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  34. …but how?

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  39. Drama, anyone?

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  40. You can spend every 2nd
    Wednesday afternoon to
    contribute to Ember.js

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  41. What Ember needs

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  42. …is a team of people working
    on major initiatives full-time as
    their main and only priority,


    pushing the ecosystem out of
    the pit of incoherence and
    beyond.

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  43. The Embroider Initiative
    a possible approach

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  45. Robert Jackson, the Atlas of the
    Ember ecosystem
    https://xkcd.com/2347/

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  46. Ed Faulkner, the Atlas of the
    Ember ecosystem
    https://xkcd.com/2347/

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  47. Rewrite or secure
    investments that have been
    made?

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  48. Rewrite or secure
    investments that have been
    made!

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  49. Would you rather spend
    >5M€ later?

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  50. …or spend 50k€ now?

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  51. 10 * 50k€ = 500k€

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  52. https://mainmatter.com/embroider-initiative/

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  53. Beyond the Embroider
    Initiative
    an unclear future

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  54. The State of the Ember
    Ecosystem, 2023
    https://xkcd.com/2347/

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  55. A Sustainable Future State of the
    Ember Ecosystem
    https://xkcd.com/2347/

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  56. A Sustainable Future State of the
    Ember Ecosystem
    https://xkcd.com/2347/

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  57. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA_ImMVU7PE
    Pit of fear,

    uncertainty and risk

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  58. https://unsplash.com/de/fotos/uKwTf3Sie50

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  59. @marcoow


    @mainmatter


    [email protected]

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  60. Thanks!
    [email protected]


    +49 89 452 139 03
    Mainmatter GmbH


    Managing Director: Marco Otte-Witte


    Hans-Sachs-Str. 12


    München, 80469 Germany


    Court of registry: Amtsgericht München


    Registration number: HRB 217887


    EU VAT ID: DE299706241

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