In this blog post, my aim is to provide personal insights into what made the previous year particularly remarkable within SAP’s open-source landscape. This serves as a preview to the SAP Open Source Report 2023, shedding light on the multitude of great minds and passionate people with their involvement in open source and InnerSource initiatives.

Throughout 2023, development teams and individuals nurtured a culture of collaboration, trust, and motivation. This resulted in the inception of a diverse array of new open source projects, additions to existing ones, and the enrichment of content within both external foundations and internal working groups.

The SAP OSPO team and affiliated groups significantly expanded their network, engaging with customers and partners in discussions ranging from new regulatory implications in open source to security concerns and developmental processes.

Reflecting on 2023 brings to my mind numerous colleagues who embarked on new open source endeavors, stepping beyond their comfort zones to share code and documentation generously – for example, encouraging developers to create logos or to write a blog post for the very first time. Unlike conventional software products, open source maintainers are intimately involved with their project’s community. For instance, a colleague involved with the ABAP cleaner project became passionate about designing a project logo and created great slides for a webinar, introducing ABAP cleaner to an external audience.

Furthermore, I was impressed by the dedication of another colleague who authored 40 blog posts related to SAPMachine in 2023 and delivered multiple presentations at conferences, occasionally leveraging personal connections for accommodation.

A significant highlight was witnessing a growing number of colleagues volunteer as open source advocates within our SAP Open Source Champions Network. In regions like China, these champions (or teammates) eagerly disseminated open source and InnerSource knowledge through local-language webinars, sparking lively discussions and shedding light on processes, tools, or projects. Similar enthusiasm was observed in India and among colleagues worldwide who volunteered for presentations at SAP’s internal developer conferences.

Another testament to the power of collaboration and passion was evident at two key conferences held in July 2023 in Germany: UI5con and the CAP developer conference. While not exclusively featuring open source projects, these events were driven by teams deeply committed to the open source ethos, showcasing their products’ open source journey.

Additionally, the OSPOlogyLive event hosted at SAP’s Frankfurt office, jointly organized by the Linux Foundation, InnerSource Commons, and other organizations, exemplified how collective efforts and enthusiasm for open source can yield exceptional outcomes, despite a smaller participant count.

The SAP Open Source Report 2023 is a testament to the positive effects of collaboration, individual drive, trust-building, and the breakdown of silos. The interactions and collaborative examples with foundations like Eclipse, Linux, or InnerSource Commons underscore how remote teams can achieve significant outcomes, enabling a family-like atmosphere during in-person meetings.

While the OSS report primarily focuses on technical outcomes and ongoing discussions, it serves as a guide of how to engage with SAP teams and technical domains. Hopefully, it will show those, who are already engaged, that they are part of something actually quite big – SAP currently stands at #9 among open source enterprise contributors in the OSCI index.

This report owes its existence to the diverse content stakeholders who shared their 2023 highlights.

more information:

• SAP Open Source Report 2023, Download URL for Report 2023
• Podcasts: The Open Source Way
• Webinars: SAP Open Source Webinars
• SAP Open Source Community
• SAP Open Source X