How Google created a new kind of open source program office

In my previous article, What is an open source program office? And why do you need one?, I introduced the idea of an open source program office (OSPO) and discussed what they do, why a company would want to create one, and how to optimize them. In that article I focused on technology vendors and for a good reason—they were the first to embrace open source program offices strategically. From IBM and Intel to Oracle and even Microsoft, open source program offices were all the rage at technology companies from 1999 through about 2005.