Apr
19
Written by:
Paula Hunter
4/19/2010 1:09 PM
I attended my first think tank this past week, and it was a great place for me to meet some new people, but also to test out some basic principals about the CodePlex Foundation. One of our founding assumptions was that there is under participation in open source projects. We have asserted that there is still confusion about how to contribute, and in some cases it is just more trouble than it is worth. Additionally, when you look at two key constituencies that certainly are benefiting from the consumption of open source, software companies and corporate IT departments, it isn’t clear how much they contribute back or if they feel obliged to do so.
I asked some simple questions of the attendees: Do we need more contribution from software companies and corporate IT departments? The twittered responses included:
“ we think corp IT needs to contribute more to OSS, but we understand why they don't - still significant barriers”
“corporate IT does not need to contribute open source under the corporate banner”
“software companies should contribute , it will surely help. Contribution model has to be defined tho”
“ oss projects need contributions beyond code”
“ corporate IT - its a give and take & more than enlightened self interest. Its retention for your best talent”
“ no proper incentives to contribute code”
Several representatives from Corporate IT gave me another perspective - they contribute, but they don’t want any brand exposure when doing so. The answers confirmed what I was able to glean from participants in 1x1 dialog, there is most definitely room for improvement.
Random notes…
The State of California business case was very interesting. Kudos to the state for tapping into some great minds to brainstorm on their open source initiative, I look forward to watching them progress with some of the constructive ideas that came forward. FWIW, P.K. Agarwal has a great sense of humor!
The mobile breakout really pointed out the challenges we are facing across multiple platforms. Seems as if RIM, Android, and iPhone are running neck and neck in the corporate world, geography playing a big factor. Lots of pent up demand for HTML5.
A lot of people commented on the ratio of men to women in open source. My observation was that less than 10% of the attendees were women, and few of them engineers. This ratio doesn’t seem to track with the broader high tech marketplace. Lots of speculation on why, but I left with a more important question, can we change this?
Lots of runners on the plane home to Boston planning on running the 114th Boston Marathon. I feel bad for the European qualifiers that could not make it in time. Hope the BAA gives them a chance next year. Great new excuse for bailing on a marathon - blame a volcano.