Bona fide open source

gallery

- Is the copyright under diverse control?

- Is the community governance open?

- Are external interfaces and formats standards compliant?

- Does your community operate under a patent peace arrangement?

- Are trademarks community controlled?

To some of the more recent start-ups who describe themselves as "open source" some of these notions are problematic, because as they see it, they inhibit companies' ability to 'proprietise' and 'monetise' the developers and the code, which misses the point that 'open source' is as much about community and ownership as it is about the visibility of code.

Red Hat doesn't own Linux and CentOS can duplicate Red Hat's code, but Red Hat wins through quality of service and hands-on support.

A successful open source project needs: A unifying purpose, the tools that enable contributors to be part of the process, a sense of belonging to a community - linked by the net and a common creative purpose- a clear licensing model, and a b and motivated inner circle of developers who bind the process together and provide a means for interested - or disinterested - parties to join the process and make comments.

Some projects - like the Debian GNU/Linux project - have a binding constitution, but most projects leave the structures and obligations as loose as possible, to encourage voluntary contributions and debate around ways of achieving the best possible outcome - thus allowing the best solutions to come through.

For many free software projects it could be said that the licence serves as a binding force. Some commercial open source software companies have successfully led open source projects in a commercial direction by employing the lead developers and fostering and maintaining links with the developer community.

The software, however, remains freely available under the conditions of the licence.

If there is a methodology to the creation of free and open source software, it is highly variant between different projects. The hierarchies may vary from project to project. Some projects have written constitutions. Some are egalitarian. Some are led by a "benevolent dictator" who makes the final decisions.

But successful projects are built around open code, freedom from the precepts of "intellectual property", and the ability of users and developers to freely contribute to the code. If you take care of the developers and the code, the returns will take care of themselves.

The trouble with the current debates about topics such as "open source business models" and "open core licensing" is that 'open source' is sometimes taken to mean whatever you want it to mean, and each new proposal takes 'open source' further away from its original meaning.

The code is a gift of the developers and 'open source' and its beneficiaries can only benefit from a clear and unambiguous stance from the OSI that honours the developers and the communities it was set up to promote.

Email to a friend

Print this page