Ubuntu Musings

It’s been a busy 10 days and to say that it’s been a struggle to keep up t’aint a stretch. I’ve finally managed to get around to writing my final report of the sessions that I attended at FSOSS 2009 last week. And this is it.

Khaled Baheyeldin of 2bits, an experienced Drupal developer, discussed how to turn a passion for Open Source into a career in a presentation called “Open Source for Fun and Profit”. While Baheyeldin focused on software development, the information and ideas that he shared can apply to other kinds of work in the Open Source sphere.

Baheyeldin began by contrasting the different development models in the Open Source and commercial worlds. Obviously, the Open Source world can be faster and more agile. He also offered another contrast — with Open Source, everyone wins: the customer, the consultant, and the community.

Why go Open Source?

He continued by explaining why a company or a consultant would want to go Open Source. The main reasons were:

• The ability to reduce capital and ongoing costs
• There are no license fees
• Companies have multiple choices for maintaining software and infrastructure: freelancers, in-house staff, the community, and consultants)

Baheyeldin stated that the total cost of ownership is in favour of Open Source. Initial setup costs are lower, as are ongoing maintenance costs. On top of that, many companies got with local talent to maintain and customize a solution. If you pay such a consultant, the money usually stays in your community.

Of course, it’s entirely possible to customize a solution. But if a company or consultant does that, it needs to remember to 1) return those customizations to the community, and 2) think about the long-term ramifications, especially forking.

The power of potential

There is a lot of potential for growth in Open Source, Baheyeldin said. Not only are there an increasing of opportunities (he pointed out the White House’s decision to use Drupal), but it’s also easier for consultants and freelancers to get noticed. There are lower barriers to entry when compared to the corporate world (for example, there’s little or no ageism). And you can market by doing.

Getting started

Baheyeldin described the road he took to becoming a professional Drupal developer and consultant. He began by filing bugs, coding, and submitting patches. From there, his reputation increased and his skills became more and more in demand as his profile in the Drupal community grew.

He said that you might only start off with the goal of helping the community, and gaining a bit of praise from that community. Your reputation increases by being active — not just coding, but writing, helping people out with questions, and more. But it won’t happen overnight. You need to put in the time and effort to become an expert and to garner a good reputation.

A short tale of an ecosystem

From there, Baheyeldin discussed the concept of symbiosis in the Open Source ecosystem. There are three kinds of symbiosis, he said:

1. Mutualism, where everyone benefits
2. Commensalism, where two groups live side by side with each other, in some from of harmony. This is how, he said, that Open Source works: you give little, but get a lot back
3. Parasitism, where one party benefits at the expense of others

You can probably guess where most corporations fit in … Baheyeldin contrasted symbiosis corporate and Open Source worlds. In the commercial world, there is only one winner. At its best, the Open Source world offers collaboration and sharing, and there are multiple winners. That said, he pointed out that the picture isn’t always that rosy. As we all know, there’s a lot of friction and backbiting in the Open Source world. Just like in any other ecosystem.

Building a career

There are several ways in which to do this. Baheyeldin outlined career options in three major areas:

• Freelancing/contracting
• Partner with others. If you go this route, look for people who have skills that complement yours
• Join a company that focuses on Open Source

One of the most common routes to making a career out of Open Source is to sell services — otherwise known as consulting. It’s not a new idea in the Open Source space. Cygnus Solutions did same thing from about 1989 until the late 1990s before the company was bought by Red Hat.

Baheyeldin pointed out some opportunities which were, obviously, focused on Drupal; but they’re applicable to other Open Source software as well. Opportunities like site building, coding themes and templates, developing extensions or new functions, customization, training, writing books, offering hosting, and doing performance and scalability tuning.

He pointed out that while you need clients (remember, someone needs to pay you), the infrastructure to get up and running is cheap or free. You can get up and running quickly.

Baheyeldin also advised that you promote Open Source software to clients and prospects based on pragmatic rather than idealistic reasons. Cut out the ideology. If necessary, hire people with experience working in the Open Source world. A good way to start that is by subcontracting.

Building your skills and reputation

Of course, before you can jump in you need to build your professional bonafides. Baheyeldin suggested getting involved in the Open Source community by contributing to project that you’re passionate about, and whose product you use. As the volume of your contributions increases, don’t be afraid to showcase your work on your Web site or blog.

He explained that collaboration is a major key to success in Open Source software. You need to work with the community, and to have good relations with members of the community. If you show yourself to be open and straighforward, without being abrasive, you can build a good reputation.

As for contributing, that can take many forms. It can be writing code, creating documentation, doing advocacy or marketing just to name a few. If you’re a freelancer or a consultant then your contributions not only add to the project(s) with which you’re involved, they also have the potential to create good will towards you in the community. Of course, contributing works both ways. If you contribute something, someone else might build on that contribution. You and they can use that contribution — either personally or in a consulting practice.

Baheyeldin concluded with two pieces of advice:

1. Join in, and have fun
2. You involvement in the community is your marketing

It’s possible, as Baheyeldin and others have shown, to build a career in Open Source. It’s not easy. But if you’re motivated, dedicated, and passionate you can succeed.

Related posts:

1. Open Source software and technical writing
2. Open Source alternatives to Web apps: Piggydb
3. Speaking at the Free Software and Open Source Symposium

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 12:25 am and is filed under FLOSS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.