Very cool - I think it's very much needed. I am happily commenting/suggesting my proposals there. I think it would be great to have inputs from many people coming from diverse backgrounds and experiences and even legal systems, I think many of us have different experiences cooperating with businesses - sometimes not easily transferable and nuanced.
I think personally - that it should be something that every one of the ASF and PMC members could simply send as a link to businesses they interact with - "And here is how you can participate". We - as individuals - are the best advocates for the ASF ideas and principles, but businesses have - in essence - no morality, goals, principles. People do, businesses don't. But clearly businesses have huge benefits from participating in Open Source, otherwise OSS would not take over the world as it did - and if we can convert our principles and values into real, tangible benefits for businesses (often -> increase their profit by either cutting the costs or increasing income, ideally both) - that is what makes it a "convincing" message for the business. "Business" is generally little interested in "principles" and more interested "what's in it for my business" almost by definition. J. On Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 10:55 PM Rich Bowen <[email protected]> wrote: > I’ve been thinking a lot over the last few years about making more > persuasive, pragmatic arguments as to why companies should engage in ASF > projects in meaningful ways. Rather than just a bug fix or feature here or > there, to think strategically about long-term engagement in projects, > earning trust and influence over the road map, and financially supporting > the project and the foundation. > > I’ve started a rough draft here: > https://github.com/apache/comdev-site/pull/216 > > (You can have a look by switching your git clone to this branch (`git > checkout rbowen-company-involvement`), running the site locally (`sh > run-local.sh`), and loading http://localhost:1313/companies/ in your > browser. > > Your input is welcome. > > The goal here is to encourage companies to think about how, and why, they > participate in ASF projects, and to do so in ways that respect vendor > neutrality and project brands. But also not to duplicate content that is > already elsewhere on our various websites — so links are greatly preferred > over voluminous prose. > > Please note that it’s not done yet, so your diffs may quickly become > outdated. I’m still drafting. But I hope to have a first draft done by the > end of this week. > > — > Rich Bowen > [email protected] > > > > >
