FOSS Backstage CFP Submissions

FOSS Backstage 2025 CFP

Bio

Shane started volunteering at the ASF in 1999. Since then he’s worked on multiple projects and conferences, wrote the ASF’s trademark policy as the first VP, Brand Management, and now serves as Board Chair. Shane also speaks at Community Over Code, FOSSBackstage, All Things Open, and select academic conferences on FOSS governance, branding, and funding topics.

Otherwise, Shane is a father, husband, and friend. Oh, and we have cats! Find me on socials at ShaneCurcuru.

FOSS Backstage 2024 CFP

Bio

Shane has been volunteering at the ASF since 1999, serving on multiple projects and roles including as VP, Brand Management, and as a many-term Director, as well as speaking at ApacheCon, and other great places like FOSSBackstage, OSCON, All Things Open, and more.

Otherwise, Shane is a father, husband, and friend. Oh, and we have cats! Find me on socials at ShaneCurcuru.

The Practical ASF Way

The Apache Way is a set of behaviors and techniques that will help anyone - organizations and individuals alike - work more effectively in distributed communities. These behaviors turn plain old open source into a truly open governance project, that can keep growing for the long term.

This session is a highly interactive review of the core behaviors that help keep Apache projects healthy and productive. Many behaviors are required at the ASF, but they are also valuable to any collaborative project where the contributors are distributed across companies, continents, and experiences.

Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of practical actions they can take to help improve their own open source experience, and how to help their communities succeed together. Lessons learned are tied back directly to relevant community and PMC documentation at the ASF, including the latest edits and updates in our docs.

Who Funds FOSS Foundations?

Have you ever wondered how open source organizations get funded? Not just the developers, but the whole ecosystem around major open source projects, either at a FOSS Foundation, independent projects, or an open core project at a company?

Most major software projects we all rely on are hosted at Foundations like Apache, Eclipse, Linux, or Software Freedom Conservancy. Those foundations provide a wide variety of support to project communities, including legal and licensing assistance, trademark management, event support, and more. As non-profits, these foundations rely on donors and sponsors for all of their work. So who funds all of this critical support for open source foundations?

Come find out what companies are behind the popular open source foundations and major independent projects, and who’s actually paying for all of the other support work that’s done to keep the servers running, press releases coming, and license compliance work. Surprises are guaranteed; I know I was surprised when I realized how many different FOSS projects that Microsoft is an annual sponsor for, what projects a few other companies supported with their cash, and how big one foundation has gotten.

Practical Trademark Law AMA

Are you trying to build a brand for your community-led project? Is your community struggling to keep vendor marketing teams out of your project’s governance? Do you need a lawyer before you can “trademark” something, or can you do it yourself? (Tip: you can do it yourself!)

This AMA is here to help answer basic trademark law questions in practical, everyday terms for FOSS projects and the companies that contribute to them. Legal advice can only come from your own lawyer - but most community questions have practical answers that can get you started without a lawyer. Trademarks are all about the public’s association of a brand with a product - and most of that happens in the real world, not a lawyer’s office.

Bring your simple community questions about how trademarks work, and we’ll try to get you some practical advice on what to do. Similarly, corporate questions are welcome - for how you can effectively partner with a Foundation or community-led project without stepping on toes.

Key resource links included, to get you started with actionable and practical information for FOSS.

FOSS Backstage 2018 CFP

Submissions

• Who owns that open source brand?
• Practical Trademark Law For FOSS Projects
• Who pays for open source?

(From the FOSS Backstage Site) FOSS Backstage will provide a space to discuss a broad spectrum of issues related to community management, vendor neutrality and leading projects without discretionary power. Conference topics will include open source project leadership best practices, community management, open source project metrics, open source strategy for the enterprise, adopting open source collaboration in corporations, legal matters when dealing with open source and many more.

Related topics not explicitly listed above are welcome as well.

FOSS Backstage 2018 CFP Questions

• Title
• Description (Abstract)
• Previous video url
• Track (asych collab, mentoring, governance, legal, sustainability/funding)
• Audience experience
• Comments to organizers

Shane is founder of Punderthings℠ LLC consultancy, helping organizations find better ways to engage with the critical open source projects that power modern technology and business. He blogs and tweets about open source governance and trademark issues, and speaks at open source conferences like ApacheCon, OSCON, All Things Open, Community Leadership Summit, and Ignite. More about the author →