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Host Your Project

LF AI and Data’s mission is to build and support an open artificial intelligence (AI) and data community, and drive open source innovation in the AI and data domains by enabling collaboration and the creation of new opportunities for all the members of the community. Host your project with LF AI & Data to benefit from the support and services of the LF AI & Data ecosystem.

What does it mean to host a project?

Hosting a project with the Linux Foundation follows open governance, which means that there is no one company or individual in control of a project. When the maintainers of an open source project decide to host it at the Linux Foundation, they specifically transfer ownership of the trademark for their project to the Linux Foundation. They don’t transfer the copyright, however, since usage is already available to other users under the open source license.

Note that LF AI & Data will only be hosting the upstream code.

Why you should host your project with LF AI & Data

LF AI & Data provides the following services:

  • A neutral home that increases adoption and contributions.
  • Deep engagement with the open source AI and data community to enable collaboration.
  • Staff eager to help and support.
  • Program and project management services.
  • Creative services available to all hosted projects.
  • Marketing services to support community and ecosystem engagement.
  • Source code scanning service.
  • Strong presence in China via a local office and support staff.
  • Ability to keep your maintainers and define your own governance, as long as it’s neutral.
  • A world-class events team (virtual until it’s safe to hold in-person events again), able to run events around the world from 12 to 12,000 attendees.

A detailed description of services available to hosted projects is available here.

The Linux Foundation is the leading commons for community assets

  • The Linux Foundation (LF) is a recognized and respected brand and can activate communications across tech, business, and social media channels.
  • The LF is the largest open source foundation, providing management of community assets for over 400 projects:
    • Over 3,400 source code repositories.
    • Over 700 trademark registrations and applications, plus hundreds of unregistered marks.
    • Over 700 project domains and DNS records.
    • Over 12,000 Contributor License Agreements signed for project communities that decide to require one.
  • The LF offers neutral sponsorship for managing fundraising.
    • Over 1,600 unique member company relationships.
  • Our communities raised over $100 million in 2019 via 6,500+ invoices.
    • Our communities spent funds in 180,000+ separate transactions in 2019.
    • The LF reports its audited financials to its board.

We build ecosystems around open source projects

  • The LF has repeatedly shown its ability to build diverse ecosystems around open source projects incorporating developers, end users, tech giants, consulting companies, and startups.
  • The LF hosts Let’s Encrypt, which provides the majority of the world’s https certificates, and demonstrates our track record of helping to build sustainable, privacy-focused initiatives.
  • The LF has a strong history of fostering a rich environment of downstream commercial and volunteer implementations. There are hundreds of independent Linux distributions.
  • There are over 100 Certified Kubernetes implementations, each of which has passed a comprehensive conformance test suite.
  • CNCF has achieved unprecedented success in helping to grow awareness and adoption of Kubernetes, as demonstrated by Google Trends and KubeCon attendance.
  • LF CommunityBridge offers paid internships with experienced mentors to increase the number and diversity of contributors.

Building large, sustainable ecosystems requires collective resources

Events

We gathered over 45,000 attendees from over 12,000 organizations across 113 countries in 2019.

Legal

We manage IP for the world’s most important tech and have one of the world’s top open source legal teams in house.

Training

We have trained millions of students through free and paid online training, online skills certification, and on-site e-learning.

Certification

We have designed and implemented both software and hardware testing and certification programs.

Developer Marketing

We have the largest share of voice of any open source foundation and a proven method to build large scale developer programs.

Developer Operations

We host the infrastructure that develops the world’s largest software communities and provide release management, IT ops, and support.

Application Security

In addition to massive peer review, our projects are regularly audited and pen tested. We offer bug bounties, dependency analysis, and code scanning.

The Linux Foundation serves as a nonprofit home

The LF has invoicing relationships with its 2,000 members, representing nearly every significant tech company, hundreds of startups, and many government organizations.

The mission of the LF, a 501(c)(6) nonprofit, is to support the creation of sustainable open source ecosystems and public health is a natural next focus.

The LF can quickly receive and distribute funding. The LF fee for fiscal sponsorship services, which includes audited financials, is 9% of the first million dollars per year and 6% of additional funds.

Host your project with LF AI & Data

Join the growing roster of LF AI & Data hosted projects and take advantage of our resources and emerging community.

CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION