Learning collaboration from open source development at the BBC

Description

The BBC has a long history of using and releasing open source software, but there are many departments across the BBC operating independently with different attitudes and approaches to open source. David Buckhurst and Tom Sadler share some of their personal experiences with open source at the BBC—particularly how the BBC iPlayer’s Core Playback layer for connected TV devices adopted an InnerSource model and how this helped teams build features on top of it—and discuss the journey as open development became central to how its employees collaborate.

You’ll explore interesting case studies of open development that illustrate the different reasons for supporting open source teams, including supporting business strategy, such as the open release of TAL, its TV application framework; as a learning and recruitment tool (e.g., for the growing number of teams who develop in public repositories); as a collaboration optimizer (e.g., for the many small libraries the BBC shares between teams); and supporting the BBC’s charter (e.g., its R&D teams license the code they develop to support research across the UK). You’ll also discover why open source principles like open decision making, contribution guidelines, and community management are just as important for internal projects.