Open Source Summit + AI_dev Japan 2024

OSPO initiatives thrive on the strength and engagement of their developer communities. However, creating and sustaining a vibrant community poses its own set of challenges. The primary goal of this talk is to share the strategies employed by Ingka IKEA’s Open Source Program Office (OSPO) for nurturing a dynamic and engaged developer community while considering the challenges of fostering collaboration within the open source ecosystem. Developers in an open source community often come from varied backgrounds and possess different levels of understanding and experience with open source contributions. Additionally, developers within an organization have varied concerns around their primary work goals, and contributing to open source may not always be a priority. Therefore, what are the strategies that OSPO’s can implement to enhance the appeal of open-source initiatives and encourage participation and contributions? How do they retain and support contributors to ensure consistent engagement? In this talk, I will share strategies from Ingka IKEA’s OSPO for building an active developer community to strengthen OSPO initiatives, empowering contributors in open-source projects.