FOSS Backstage 2024

A Journey to Inner Source
2024-03-04 , Stage Auditorium

Inner Source is like Open Source, it just stays within the company. Sounds easy enough, right?! However, you may find it’s just not working as smoothly as you had hoped. Why is that? In this session, we will explore Inner Source and talk about positive factors, obstacles, and what can be done.


So you have decided that Inner Source is the way to go for your enterprise. Good for you! The rest is a piece of cake. You only need to explain to your employees what this is all about. Oh yeah, and talk to the people from corporate tax, should be no problem, you know a guy there. Then get the legal department to answer some simple questions, and off you go!

Alright, tooling is an issue, too. And governance... Ok ok, so you haven’t thought about all the minor details, but you just get everybody’s attention and spread the word. Easy!

Right?!?

Let me talk about our journey at Mercedes-Benz. We haven’t solved everything yet, but we’re on a good path, and maybe our experience can help you a bit, too. We will look at what factors can make an Inner Source project successful, what some of the stumbling blocks can be and how to overcome at least some of them.

See also: Slides (4.9 MB)

Dr. Wolfgang Gehring is an ambassador for Open and Inner Source and has been working on enabling and spreading the idea within Mercedes-Benz and its IT-subsidiary Mercedes-Benz Tech Innovation (MBTI). A software engineer by trade, Wolfgang’s goal is to help enable Mercedes-Benz to fully embrace FOSS and become a true Open Source company. He has a passion for communities, leads MBTI’s Open Source Program Office, is a member of the Mercedes-Benz FOSS Center of Competence, and a Director of the Eclipse Foundation.

In his free time, Wolfgang likes to engage in conversations about soccer and is an avid traveler and scuba diver. He calls Albert Einstein’s birth city of Ulm his home in Southern Germany.

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