Quantitative Method for Open Source Contribution Value and Its Impa... Kazumi SATO & Masayuki KUWATA

### Overview In this presentation at an open source and operations management summit, Kazumi Sato and Masayuki Kuwata from Sony Group Corporation present a quantitative methodology designed to measure open source software (OSS) contribution value and demonstrate its strategic business impact. While Sony engineers and management have easily recognized the value of consuming open source software, building consensus around participating in and actively contributing code as part of commercial business activities has historically faced internal resistance. The speakers detail how moving from purely qualitative arguments to quantitative data analysis enabled Sony's Open Source Program Office (OSPO) to influence executive decision-making, integrate OSS into upstream business planning, and engage business units.

### Key Topics - **Transitioning Beyond OSS Consumption**: Overcoming internal reluctance to move from a passive consumer to an active participant and contributor within open source communities. - **Limitations of Qualitative Justifications**: Why philosophical and qualitative arguments fail to shift corporate strategy and engineering practices, whereas quantitative peer and competitor data succeeds. - **Three-Step Data-Driven Analysis**: Assessing internal contribution versus revenue imbalance, visualizing foundation-level technology landscapes using contributor indexing, and deep-diving into specific projects to map contributions to corporate business goals. - **Organizational Engagement Strategy**: Utilizing executive briefings, upstream strategic planning interventions, and middle-management-enabled bottom-up engineering engagement.

### Technical Details The presenters outlined a three-step quantitative framework: 1. **Assessing the Company's Current State**: Sony mapped its internal open source projects and contributor counts across technical categories against company sales and profits. This revealed a significant imbalance between commercial revenue drivers and open source engineering investments, which was shared with executives. 2. **Landscape Visualization via Foundation Data**: Leveraging the Open Source Contributor Index (OSCI) by EPAM and project data from three neutral foundations—the Linux Foundation, Apache Software Foundation, and Eclipse Foundation—the team normalized and classified projects into domains. Findings showed Cloud as the largest domain (~2,700 developers, predominantly Linux Foundation), followed by AI/Data (~1,400 developers, split with Apache), and IoT/Embedded (~600 developers, mainly Linux Foundation). They further mapped corporate participation, highlighting how Meta dominates AI/Data through PyTorch, while IT giants, Intel, Google, and semiconductor firms focus on specific areas like Cloud, IoT, and hardware acceleration. 3. **Granular Project Deep Dive**: The team analyzed contributor behavior within PyTorch. Rather than counting sporadic one-off contributors, they defined "dedicated developers" as individuals with at least 10 active months and 40 commits per year. The analysis showed Meta had 36 dedicated developers while other organizations combined fielded 38 dedicated developers. Further sub-repository analysis revealed that major tech firms (Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft) and semiconductor vendors actively commit to PyTorch to enhance and accelerate their own platforms, operating systems, and Systems-on-Chip (SoCs).

### Takeaways - **Quantitative Data Secures Executive Buy-In**: Concrete data showing how competitors and peers strategically invest in open source is substantially more effective at convincing C-level executives than abstract qualitative value propositions. - **Upstream Integration into Business Strategy**: Providing quantitative OSS trend data directly to corporate strategy planners ensures open source is explicitly accounted for in forward-looking technology roadmaps. - **Tailoring to Business Units**: Demonstrating specific industry contributions (such as semiconductor vendor commits in PyTorch) triggered new open source initiatives within divisions like Sony Semiconductor Solutions. - **Engaging Middle Management for Bottom-Up Action**: Encouraging middle managers to facilitate bottom-up participation empowers younger engineers and technical specialists to take active roles in sustaining critical upstream open source projects.