Taking Research to FLOSS-Curious Engineers and Managers

Abstract

In 2006 the author undertook to take what I'd learnt from the research on Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) both to 'the community' and to those interested in joining 'the community'. I prepared and presented two 3.5 hour tutorials at FLOSS conferences: LinuxAsia in Delhi and O'Reilly's Open Source Conference (OSCON) in Portland. This paper describes these experiences. The author first summarizes the tutorials, pointing out which research was used and what the interests of the participants were and where more research can bridge the gaps. The author then describe an ongoing interaction with a software engineering manager at Microsoft who attended the tutorial and is in the interesting position of taking a Microsoft work group open. Finally the author reflects on this experience for lessons about 'transferable research'.