Internal InnerSource Ambassadors/Champions Program

[dellagustin-sap]

To be refined, we are planning to do it at SAP, we already have an Open Source Champions program that we want to extent it or mirror it to InnerSource.

This is also something that was mentioned on the summit https://innersourcecommons.org/events/isc-2024/ at the talk "The InnerSource Flywheel".

@rrrutledge could share some experience here as well.

[dellagustin]

Related issue on the ISPO WG board: InnerSourceCommons/ispo-working-group#137

Public Reference from SAP: https://community.sap.com/t5/open-source-blogs/sap-open-source-champions/ba-p/13539587

[dellagustin-sap]

A first version of this pattern was integrated as Initial by @spier : https://github.com/InnerSourceCommons/InnerSourcePatterns/blob/5004c9cc05e443ddf077247a1a596bb5b6aded64/patterns/1-initial/innersource-ambassador.md

[dellagustin-sap]

My ongoing review notes of the draft:

Story
In a multinational organization, the ISPO implemented InnerSource initiatives but noticed uneven adoption across departments. After appointing a local ambassador in one department, adoption rates improved as the ambassador tailored practices to the department's context and provided valuable feedback to the ISPO.

There are multiple dimensions where we could have ambassador, this story explore two: locations (In a multinational organization) and departments (organizational hierarchy).

Should we have both represented in the story, and if yes, should we adapt it to better represent it?

e.g.:

In a multinational and/or hierarchical organization, the ISPO implemented InnerSource initiatives but noticed uneven adoption across locations and/or departments. After appointing a local ambassador in one department, adoption rates improved as the ambassador tailored practices to the department's context and provided valuable feedback to the ISPO.

or just:

In a (deeply) hierarchical organization, the ISPO implemented InnerSource initiatives but noticed uneven adoption across departments. After appointing a local ambassador in one department, adoption rates improved as the ambassador tailored practices to the department's context and provided valuable feedback to the ISPO.

[dellagustin-sap]

PR for adding incentives to the solutions: #759

[dellagustin-sap]

List for PRs created during our working sessions today:

• innersource-ambassador.md - incentives for ambassadors #759
• innersource-ambassador.md - Adding related concepts to the Rationale #758
• innersource-ambassador.md - Add experience from WellSky #757
• innersource-ambassador.md - open source experience + motivation of ambassadors #756

[spier]

Amazing! Looks like this was a really productive session. Already merged 3/4 PRs.

Aim to look at the last PR over the weekend.

[spier]

The PR #758 is a bit harder to merge as is, however it started some good exploration.

Left some feedback here:
#758 (review)

[rrrutledge]

What do the terms "Ambassador" and "Champion" mean? Are they synonyms? Or a distinct meaning?

[sallydeering1]

Ambassadors are 'support people' and 'advocates' (using Jono Bacon's typical community personas) where support people help other [innersource practitioners] solve problems. For example, they may do personal mentoring or provide innersource training for groups of people. And advocates want the [innersource] community to succeed. They do marketing, outreach and promotion of [innersourcing] to raise awareness and to get people interested and involved in it. I'm not proposing introducing new terms of support or advocate but it helps articulate what ambassadors do. I'm still not clear on what IS Champions would do vs. IS Ambassadors but open to learning.

[spier]

When writing the pattern I used champion as a synonym for ambassador.
I believe that both terms where used in the description when the pattern was initially proposed.