How Do You Grow Your Own OSS Project

I talked my old OSS expericence when I joined OpenSolaris Project. it is like インターネット老人会。

Transcript

1. 2026 Japan Track [BoF] How Do You Grow Your Own OSS Project? — Sustaining, Scaling, and Building Contributors 如何養大你自己的開源專案？ — 一場關於維持、擴展與培養貢獻者 Masafumi Ohta Rep. of Japanese Raspberry Pi Users Group Ex-core contributor of OpenSolaris Project 2026 Japan Track
2. Before Starting the BoF • Ideas and thoughts are very welcome — feel free to speak up at any time, even in the middle of the talk • However, negative comments such as disparaging or defamatory remarks are NOT acceptable • This is not a listen-only session — don't hesitate to share your opinions! 2026 Japan Track
3. About me • Former Core Contributor of OpenSolaris — started a laptop porting project together with an American and an Australian, as a team of three • Developed and distributed a laptop-focused OpenSolaris distribution — in recognition of this work, I was nominated as a Core Contributor and unanimously approved by the Governance Board • Resigned as a Contributor when the Governance Board was dissolved following Oracle's acquisition of Sun • Later founded the Japanese Raspberry Pi Users Group, applying the community know-how learned from OpenSolaris • Also led an OpenStack GPU-passthrough project — spread the know-how of using GPUs on OpenStack based on a deployment case at a major Japanese automotive company, and was recognized by the OpenStack Foundation 2026 Japan Track
4. Webpages 2026 Japan Track
5. My First Gadgets, not Raspberry Pi ;-) 2026 Japan Track
6. Screen Shot (ASUS Eee PC N10J) 2026 Japan Track
7. Pain Point for the first approach at OpenSolaris • The project was originally launched inside Sun — as I was not a Sun employee, there was internal opposition to my joining • Using English as the main communication language, with Japanese as secondary, drew objections from the Japanese community • I couldn't speak English at all back then, so I studied it really hard Learned how to write IT-related documents in English from Sun's translation team • Attended an English conversation school • Talked with native speakers in online games and learned talking techniques from them • • When bugs occurred — especially security issues — Sun's review was required, which made escalation very hard 2026 Japan Track
8. Once issues found… 2026 Japan Track
9. Pain Point to manage the project at OpenSolaris • It was hard to spread the know-how so that others could reproduce what I did just by reading the documentation — not merely running commands, but understanding how and why • Struggled with the different attitudes of people abroad — many offered lots of ideas, which I included in my distribution; however, people from one particular country only criticized, and even when I pointed out their misunderstandings they rarely admitted them, which was tough • Non-native speakers' English was often hard to understand • Language and cultural barriers annoyed me a lot — fortunately, Sun's translation team gave me the chance to study English, learning how to write documents and describe issues in English 2026 Japan Track
10. OpenSolaris to be global project • OpenSolaris aimed to be a global project from the very beginning — community leaders from each country held regular meetings, which made it easy to learn each other's cultures and strengthened mutual understanding and solidarity • Even after the acquisition of Sun, I am still in touch with many of the former leaders — proof of how strong our solidarity was back then 2026 Japan Track
11. Old memories 2026 Japan Track
12. What can be applied Raspberry Pi community from OpenSolaris project • Aimed to collaborate not only with the community in our own country but also with overseas communities, and to help launch new ones • Kept sending information out — holding events and making use of the official forum • A connection with Raspberry Pi came about by chance, so we made the most of it • Valued gamification • Goods and swag serve as a symbol of community solidarity • Actively participated in global open source events, such as Open Source Summit by the Linux Foundation • Used travel funds whenever events offered them —it is a great help for younger developers to spread their projects 2026 Japan Track
13. Cross over communities 2026 Japan Track
14. OpenStack is a ’freedom’ for hackers • GPU support in OpenStack was still uncharted territory with no good documentation, but a customer at a major Japanese Automotive company asked me whether GPUs could be used — I investigated and made it work • GPU use in containers was fairly well established, but use in VMs — such as running Windows as a VM — was not • OpenStack left so much ‘freedom’ in its development — the how-to documentation was scattered, so I pulled it together and managed to document the know-how through trial and error • The customer’s system, roughly 200 nodes, also went into production successfully (with NVIDIA’s kind help at the time) 2026 Japan Track
15. Spread the word about the customer success story in OpenStack use • The customer asked us to promote this GPU success story, so I thought hard about how to do it • Linux Foundation’s OpenSource Summit seemed the right venue — I gave talks on the success story in China, Europe, and Japan • During the tour I met members of the OpenStack Foundation, and my work was recognized as a project — AI is not yet familiar then, so it was categorized as an HPC project 2026 Japan Track
16. Lessons learned from a successful project • Keep the project going patiently and keep sending information out — this really matters • Show that your project is helpful for everyone, rather than seeking the spotlight — in the social media era, too many people just want attention • Stay open to everyone, not just a particular few — welcome diverse opinions on the project and reflect them • Understand the ‘culture’ each person backgrounds — this is really hard • Use forums and social media like Discord strategically and smartly — not for attention-seeking, but as a path to turn casual members into core members • Actively create opportunities to talk about your project at global conferences overseas — it becomes a stepping stone to going global 2026 Japan Track
17. Special Thanks to • All of you attending today • Friends who gave me tons of ideas • The COSCUP committee 2026 Japan Track
18. 2026 Japan Track Thanks, any questions? Masafumi Ohta mailto:masafumi@pid0.org 2026 Japan Track