Succeeding with Open Source
Chapter 1: The Source of Open Source
Who Creates Open Source?
A consistent question regarding open
source is, "Who writes open source software?" A second, often-unasked question is, "Why would
anyone work on open source?" Many people don't understand why someone would program without
financial compensation, because they view programming as unfulfilling drudgery. Alternatively, many
people believe that open source developers must be students or unemployed, with an assumption that
they work on open source in place of a real job.
Who creates open source software and how they support their work on open source is, however, key
for pragmatic users. IT organizations need to use software that will be available and supported for
the long term --their software infrastructure must be "futureproof." Relying on software created by
people who are uncommitted for the long term is too risky. After all, no IT organization wants to
find that a key piece of technology is suddenly orphaned because the developers lost interest or
had to "get a real job."
Of course, the availability of source
code makes a product futureproof in some sense. Even if the developers end their involvement
with an open source product, users have the source code itself to rely on for use in the future.
This really isn't enough for most IT organizations, however. Almost all commercial enterprise
software purchases come with source code escrow agreements, which make the product source available
if the vendor goes out of business. IT organizations avoid doing business with vendors when they
suspect the escrow conditions might come into play, however. IT organizations want working
software, not a code base. Source code escrow arrangements are a last resort, not a procurement
strategy.
Therefore, most IT organizations do not perceive the source availability of open source products
as their path forward. Even those that work with source code want to contribute to ongoing product
development rather than taking on sole responsibility for the product. Therefore, the question of
who creates open source software remains key. Who are open source developers? Can they be relied on
to create a long-lived product?
Fortunately, there is good information available about the open source development community. In
2002, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) carried out a large survey of the open source community in
cooperation with SourceForge, an open source portal. They did this to better understand the
potential of open source as well as how much risk is present for open source users. BCG contacted
more than 1,500 randomly chosen open source developers with a Web-based survey and received more
than 500 responses. The findings of the survey provided a snapshot of the open source development
community; more important, the findings contradicted the assumptions many people have about open
source developers. (The complete findings of the survey can be found at www.osdn.com/bcg/.)
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