Navigating the open road: Building sustainable open source contributions

"Navigating the open road: Building sustainable open source contributions" presented by Sven Erik Jeroschewski (Robert Bosch GmbH) explores how organisations can build and sustain meaningful open source initiatives in complex, software-defined industries. This session was recorded at Open Community Experience 2026 (OCX26) in Brussels, Belgium, as part of the OC for Automotive.

This session examines how open source collaboration is evolving within the automotive industry as systems become increasingly software-defined.

Open source is positioned not as a goal, but as a means to achieve specific business and engineering outcomes. The talk highlights the diversity of motivations behind open source adoption, ranging from engineering efficiency to business strategy, and how misalignment between these drivers can lead to friction.

Using observations from the Eclipse SDV ecosystem, the session identifies common challenges in sustainability, including low cross-project collaboration, inactive repositories, and lack of long-term ownership.

The talk introduces practical frameworks for understanding open source maturity, including progression models from accidental adoption to strategic leadership, and the distinction between engineering-driven and business-driven participation.

It also explores different open source project archetypes and governance models, emphasising that there is no single “correct” structure. Trade-offs between control, scalability, and development pace must be managed consciously.

From a maintainer perspective, the session outlines key factors for building sustainable communities, including discoverability, ease of contribution, clear governance, and contributor motivation. Concepts such as “social architecture” are highlighted as critical to long-term project health.

Key topics covered
- open source in software-defined vehicles (SDV)
- sustainability challenges in open source ecosystems
- engineering vs business-driven open source models
- collaboration patterns across projects
- maturity models for open source adoption
- project archetypes and governance structures
- community building and contributor engagement
- discoverability and onboarding strategies
- funding and incentive models
- long-term maintenance and ownership

Why this matters
Most open source projects don’t fail technically. They fail because there are no active contributors.

About OCX26
Open Community Experience 2026 is the Eclipse Foundation’s flagship event, held in Brussels, Belgium. It brings together developers, architects, and industry leaders to explore open source technologies across domains including automotive, AI, tooling, and cloud-native systems, with a focus on real-world implementation. Learn more at https://www.ocxconf.org/

Chapters
00:00 introduction and context
02:18 software-defined vehicles and open source
03:23 what is open source really
06:00 open vs closed development models
07:22 ecosystem analysis and collaboration gaps
09:18 drivers behind open source adoption
10:26 maturity models and adoption stages
11:42 engineering vs business-driven models
13:30 business models in open source
16:23 project trade-offs and constraints
17:01 open source project archetypes
20:45 maintainer perspective and community growth
24:01 social architecture principles
27:25 governance and collaboration structures
29:44 culture, incentives, and sustainability

Видео Navigating the open road: Building sustainable open source contributions канала Open Community Experience