Open Source in China J Aaron Farr JadeTower The Apache Software Foundation farra@apache.org

Those who know don t talk, Those who talk don t know

When a country obtains great power, it becomes like the sea: all streams run downward into it. The more powerful it grows, the greater the need for humility.

A Tour of China

China By The Numbers No. 1 in FDI at around $60 billion since 2002 Avg 9.4% annual GDP growth rate for 25 years Currently 4th largest economy Will surpass UK, Germany, Italy, and France by the end of the decade

China IT Industry Graduate 100,000 programmers each year Software market reached $85.43 billion this year Fourth largest software market worldwide 162 million Internet users, 12.3% of the population Developer hourly rate: $10 USD

Industry Growth 200 150 100 50 0 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Management Software Security In 100 Million Chinese Yuan Outsourcing Middleware CCID <http://www.reuters.com/article/pressrelease/idus136243+15-jan-2008+prn20080115>

Intellectual Property Yamaha: 5 out of every 6 motorcycles are fakes DVD: 95% piracy rate Software: 94% piracy rate Example: xiaonei.com

China s Facebook

Economics of Piracy

Economics of Piracy 2002: 852 raids for illegal CD/DVD

Economics of Piracy 2002: 852 raids for illegal CD/DVD 99.5% convicted

Economics of Piracy 2002: 852 raids for illegal CD/DVD 99.5% convicted 764 fined under $1,000

Economics of Piracy 2002: 852 raids for illegal CD/DVD 99.5% convicted 764 fined under $1,000 Only 2 fined $5,000 - $10,000

Open Source vs Piracy When Windows is free too, open source cannot compete on price alone. More discs = more expensive, right? Open source licenses face same enforcement problems as commercial licenses.

Go West, Young Man... there's a sense that a renaissance is going on here. I'm thinking of Horatio Alger's dictum: "Go west, young man." We reached the end of Alger's directions in California. China is now true west from there. Go west, young man, go west. What happens in China over the next decade is going to shape the history of the world. -Tim O Reilly http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/11/china_foo_camp.html

Yen Yüan asked about the meaning of humaneness. The Master said, "To completely overcome selfishness and keep to propriety is humaneness. If for a full day you can overcome selfishness and keep to propriety, everyone in the world will return to humaneness. Does humaneness come from oneself, or from others?" Yen Yüan asked: "May I ask in further detail how this is to be brought about?" Confucius said, "Do not watch what is improper; do not listen to what is improper; do not speak improperly and do not act improperly." Yen Yüan said, "Although I am not so perspicacious, I will apply myself to this teaching."

Chinese Culture

Chinese Culture Guan-Xi

Chinese Culture Relationships

Chinese Culture American individualist egalitarian information oriented reductionist sequential seeks the truth argument culture Chinese collectivist hierarchical relationship oriented holistic circular seeks the way haggling culture

Act without doing; work without effort. Find taste in the tasteless Think of the small as large and the few as many. Answer evil with inner power.

Linux in China In China, open source = Linux Red Hat, Red Flag, Novell SUSE, TurboLinux Mobile Linux OpenMoko, E28 Embedded Linux 1,000 results on Alibaba.com IP Cameras, DVRs, Storage, Card Readers, etc.

Linux Market Analyst forecast China s Linux market will grow ~30% yearly from 2006-2010 Linux sales in 2005 were $21 million, 81% increase or $11.8 million, up 27.1% Other open source software sales $19 million Linux market share increase 4.2% to 9.8% between 2003 and 2005

Linux Market 100 80 75 60 50 40 25 20 0 Windows Linux Other 0 Windows Unix Other DESKTOP SERVER

Open Source in China China's open source communities are relatively small and don't have much influence. There is a lack of big projects, few participants, and little money. - Hu Ke, CCID Analyst

Asus Eee PC

Mozilla in China Mozilla China (non-profit) in 2005 Mozilla Online in 2007 2-3% market share Web standards a problem Example: Zeuux project

Projects RedFlag Linux Pugs (Perl 6 in Haskell) XOOPS Hong Kong Open Fonts Project Forks/branches of many major open source projects OpenFoundry: 848 projects, 5435 users

Opera Masks Open Source JSF toolkit http://www.operamasks.org/

Sites lupaworld.com linuxeden.com phpchina.com eclipseworld.org open-open.com

Organizations China Open Source Promotion Union Hong Kong Open Source Software Center GuangDong Linux Center Beijing Linux Users Group Taipei Open Source Software Users Group and many more...

Recent Events Linux World China 2004-2008 Open China, Open World, Beijing, Guangzhou 06-08 OSDC.tw, Taipei 2006-2008 Wikimania, Taipei 2007 Asia Open Source Conference, Guangzhou 2008 China Foo, Beijing, 2008

Upcoming Events COSCUP, August 2008, Taipei Open Office.org Conference, 2008, Beijing Gnome.asia Summit, 2008, Beijing OS Summit, December 2008, Shanghai OSSPAC, Feb 2009, Singapore

If you want to be a great leader, you must learn to follow the Tao. Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself.

Challenges Open Source Software Projects create Communities Communities Communicate Communities share Culture The challenge we face is cultural first, technical second

Challenges Top down approach Closed community, open source Complexity in copyright laws Communities tend to be very fragile

Three Communities Industry Government Grassroots

Creating a Dialog I got the sense that there really are two tech communities in China: the one we reached, and another one, that is more distinctly Chinese. Both are important. It's not really that there's this outer ring of westerners and Western-connected Chinese, with the "core" being the local industry. It's more that there is a Western-facing industry, and an indigenous one that is growing up in parallel. - Tim O Reilly

Creating a Dialog with the Chinese-language Internet soon to become the largest part of the global Internet, we badly need more bridges, more collaboration, more dialogue, and better understanding. - Rebecca MacKinnon

Chicken and the Egg

Moving Forward Reaching out to students Bringing communities together Training and education of business and the press Showing results

Competition vs Collaboration Active effort to encourage global participation Documentation Translation Encouragement of localized groups Coordination between communities

Recommended Reading http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/ 2007/11/my-web20-week-1.html http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/11/ china_foo_camp.html http://stephesblog.blogs.com/my_weblog/2007/11/ my-china-foo-pr.html

When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists. Next best is a leader who is loved. Next, one who is feared. The worst is one who is despised. If you don't trust the people, you make them untrustworthy. The Master doesn't talk, he acts. When his work is done, the people say, "Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves!"

Thank You! J Aaron Farr farra@apache.org cubiclemuses.com