ChefConf

You know your company must move beyond merely using open source software to contributing to compete with more nimble companies. How many great technical hires have you lost because your company frowns on open source contributions? How can you convince the boss, and Legal, that you can allow open source contributions within reasonable guardrails? Four years ago, Nordstrom first allowed open source contributions. Since then we've picked up quite a few dos and don'ts. Nordstrom engineers have contributed to Chef, React.js, Kubernetes, Docker, and many other projects. In this talk, Nordstrom's Chef engineers will walk through the benefits of using and contributing to open source, and which guidelines can limit your risk. We'll cover which license we use for projects we maintain, and why we chose it. Finally, we'll cover Contributor License Agreements. You'll leave this talk with practical advice on how and why you should allow open source contributions within the guardrails that'll make your boss, and Legal, happy.