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.

Transcript

1. Securing Technology Investments and Open Source Funding
2. Marco Otte-Witte Founder, Mainmatter 2
5. Building on Open Source
6. https://unsplash.com/de/fotos/ObpCE_X3j6U
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
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.
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 👩💻🧑💻👨💻
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
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.
12. Ember The situation in
13. https://xkcd.com/2347/
14. Ember isn't a single dependency several levels down the stack but a whole ecosystem. https://xkcd.com/2347/ ❓
15. The State of the Ember Ecosystem, 2014-2019 https://xkcd.com/2347/
16. Robert Jackson, the Atlas of the Ember ecosystem https://xkcd.com/2347/
17. Would you like to be part of our professional frontend framework? https://xkcd.com/2347/
18. The State of the Ember Ecosystem, 2023 https://xkcd.com/2347/
21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Ti0szjNPE
23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA_ImMVU7PE
24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA_ImMVU7PE
25. Companies have built applications with Ember over many years with dozens or sometimes hundreds of engineers. Yet, investments have been made
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
27. Rewrite or secure investments that have been made?
29. Rewrite or secure investments that have been made!
30. If you benefit from open source technology, tools, documentation and the like, you should give something back.
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.
32. 🙈🙊🙉
33. 💰
34. …but how?
39. Drama, anyone?
40. You can spend every 2nd Wednesday afternoon to contribute to Ember.js
41. What Ember needs
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.
43. The Embroider Initiative a possible approach
45. Robert Jackson, the Atlas of the Ember ecosystem https://xkcd.com/2347/
46. Ed Faulkner, the Atlas of the Ember ecosystem https://xkcd.com/2347/
47. Rewrite or secure investments that have been made?
48. Rewrite or secure investments that have been made!
49. Would you rather spend >5M€ later?
50. …or spend 50k€ now?
51. 10 * 50k€ = 500k€
52. https://mainmatter.com/embroider-initiative/
53. Beyond the Embroider Initiative an unclear future
54. The State of the Ember Ecosystem, 2023 https://xkcd.com/2347/
55. A Sustainable Future State of the Ember Ecosystem https://xkcd.com/2347/
56. A Sustainable Future State of the Ember Ecosystem https://xkcd.com/2347/
57. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA_ImMVU7PE Pit of fear, 
 uncertainty and risk
58. https://unsplash.com/de/fotos/uKwTf3Sie50
59. @marcoow @mainmatter info@mainmatter.com
60. Thanks! info@mainmatter.com +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