The Linux Foundation Member Summit 2021

Bootstrapping an open source project is no easy task: you have to consider project visibility, technical attraction, contributors churn rate, initial governance, reviewers availability and rate of integrating contributions. Things are even more difficult when the project is a research project. In this talk, Razvan will present the Unikraft open source project (https://unikraft.org/), the evolution of the project from a research to an open source project, the steps in building a community around the project, the challenges passed and those ahead. Currently, the Unikraft community is a melange of industry and academia contributors with research and business interests. Razvan will show how technical and non-technical challenges are tackled in the Unikraft project with the aim of creating an engaging community, focusing on: * converting research results into mainline, well designed and well integrated contributions * engaging students for longer time periods, turning them into consistent * contributors, even maintainers * engaging industry staff in technical decisions, reviews and mentoring contributors * advertising the project in community, research and industry events