How organizations can get more value from open source

An organization might first encounter open source when it adopts an open source library, operating system, database, or application. But robust open source engagement goes much further than just using software. 

Organizations need to understand how to participate in the communities behind the software they depend on and how that participation creates value. By participating in those communities, organizations can have a voice in the direction of the technologies they rely on, build relationships with the people who maintain them, and share solutions to problems that others may be facing too. Open source is not a business model. It's a development and operating model.

In other words, to get the most out of open source, organizations must think about how teams collaborate, how decisions get made, how knowledge is shared, and how contributions flow between an organization and open source communities. That means building the business around the needs of the community, not the other way around.

This is one reason we're seeing continued interest in open source program offices (OSPOs). An OSPO can help organizations turn open source from a collection of individual activities into a more intentional organizational practice. But creating an OSPO is only part of the equation. Executive sponsorship, clear goals, effective governance, and alignment with business and technical priorities all matter.

Open source is straightforward, but scale isn’t

Most organizations don't need convincing that collaboration is valuable. They need help scaling collaboration across the organization. An OSPO can help develop the guidance, policies, and processes that answer questions like: 

• Who can contribute to external projects?
• What guidance do employees need?
• When does legal or IP review come into play?
• How should contributions be recognized?
• How do new contributors become sustained community participants?
• Who is responsible for maintaining what gets contributed?

The answers shouldn't create layers of bureaucracy. They should make participation easier. Clear contribution guidelines, onboarding resources, governance templates, and defined contributor-to-maintainer pathways can make open source participation easier and more sustainable. 

Working in an open source world means working across boundaries

An OSPO can serve as a connective layer across the organization, helping teams discover existing work, create pathways for contribution, and develop the policies and practices that make collaboration easier.

One approach is inner source applying open source development practices internally so teams can make their code available for others within their organization to discover, use, modify, and contribute to.

Inner source creates opportunities for teams to build on existing work and share expertise, rather than creating and maintaining software in isolation. This can reduce duplicative efforts, make better use of engineering talent, and help teams solve problems faster.

An OSPO can help make these practices repeatable by providing common guidance, templates, education, and governance. In a traditional team structure, the question might be, “Who owns this?” In an open source-oriented organization, it can become, “Who else could benefit from this, who might contribute, and how can they participate?”

That shift is part of an OSPO's broader role: creating the conditions for more people to participate and build on each other's work.

AI is putting the model to a new test

AI-assisted development is adding another dimension to open source participation.  Upstream communities are beginning to explore how AI-assisted contributions should be disclosed and evaluated. Fedora's AI-assisted contribution policy is one example of a project working through these questions.

AI could also help communities manage the growing volume of AI-generated contributions. Agentic systems could categorize submissions, check them against project requirements, flag potential issues, and route contributions to human reviewers. Better tooling helps maintainers manage increasing contribution volume without sacrificing review quality.

What does it mean to work effectively in an open source world?

Project contributors may work inside or outside your organization. The code they contribute may be owned by your organization, shared through open source, or maintained by an external community. Internal teams use and contribute to code across the organization, and AI may increasingly help create it, too. Technical skills remain essential, but organizations also need to know how to collaborate, govern, measure, and participate effectively.

As open source becomes part of how an organization works, success must be measured by more than adoption, cost savings, and license compliance. Community health metrics, such as contributor onboarding time and retention rates, offer additional insight into the sustainability and effectiveness of open source projects. The Linux Foundation's Community Health Analytics in Open Source Software (CHAOSS) project provides resources to help organizations understand and measure these dimensions.

That evolution is reflected in the questions we're hearing from customers and partners. The conversation has moved way beyond, “How do we use open source?” Nowadays, it's increasingly about, “How do we work effectively in an open source world?”

For Red Hat, that's a familiar conversation. Open source has always been about more than software. It's about communities, collaboration, transparency, and shared problem-solving. As the way we build software continues to evolve, the organizations that can participate effectively—not just consume effectively—will be better positioned to adapt. 

Dive deeper:

• Watch: The value of open source AI 
• Learn more about open source 
• Explore how Red Hat contributes to open source communities