Consuming, Contributing, Collaborating: Open Source from all sides by Ron Minsky

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Engaging with Open Source Communities: A Business Perspective

Today, we're exploring how businesses can actively participate and engage in open source communities. This crucial aspect evolves from my own experience at James Street, a trading firm deeply embedded in technological operations. While open source might not seem a direct fit to a trading firm's business model, the benefits are immense. In this article, we dive into our open source engagements, sharing insights on what worked, what didn't, and why it all mattered.

James Street: A Quick Overview

Before we dive into the benefits of open source, it's important to understand the technological context of our operations at James Street. Operating as liquidity providers in the trading market, we serve as the middlemen for investments, working to profit from the gap between the buy and sell price. This seemingly harmless operation is veritably complex; we've been in the industry for 20 years, handle nearly 2000 employees, operate across multiple time zones and regulatory regimes, handling multiple types of securities and strategies. As a result, our business is incredibly technology-driven.

We invest heavily in building software that simplifies and scales our operations, optimizing the delivery of data and making it easier for people to discover new ideas. This foundation is extensively built on open source software, like many other technologically-driven endeavors.

Our Open Source Journey

Over the years, we have invested more deeply in various open source ecosystems, supporting pre-existing projects and launching our own open source software. Here's a glimpse into our open source journey:

  • Mercurial:
  • Mecurial, a version control system, was initially used directly off-the-shelf. However, as our operations grew, we encountered more stress points and opted to take a more hands-on role with the platform.

  • O Camel:
  • We began by using O Camel, a programming language, quite naïvely, progressively becoming major contributors to the O Camel community. Today, our team of compiler developers regularly make changes that benefit our internal operations, later refining them for submission upstream, to benefit the larger O Camel community.

  • Exporting Internal Code:
  • To boost the O Camel ecosystem and extend its suitability to our internal workings, we began exporting parts of our internal code. Released via Github, an influx of vibrant code from within our walls saw an increased alignment between our internal software and the external O Camel ecosystem.

  • dune:
  • As an attempt to build encompassing open source communities, we chose Dune as a community-focused project. Interestingly, there are more external contributors to Dune today than there are at James Street.

  • Magic Trace:
  • The Magic Trace project, another of our open-source undertakings, provides a detailed analysis of the operations of Hello World.

    Key Takeaways: Engaging in Open Source

    Getting onboard the open source train can be a challenging yet rewarding journey. Here are some insights to aid your transition:

  • Align Open Source with Organizational Goals:
  • Be it the growth of the open source ecosystem, customizing contributions, or providing consumable data sets, aligning open source work with organizational goals can greatly amplify its benefits and sustainability.

  • Engage Diversely:
  • Funding people to work on projects, contributing to discussion forums, submitting bug reports, or even releasing your projects are all ways you can engage. However, the choice of your open source strategy is pivotal.

  • Consider the Developer Experience:
  • The tooling used can greatly affect the developer experience. So, when choosing your open source strategy, ensure that the interface is easy to use for all contributors.

    Open source contributions, therefore, go a long way in not just fostering developer communities but also propelling your business growth. So, embark on your open source journey today!


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