Open Source Think Tank Redux

I had meant to write up my thoughts on this a month ago, but they got buried…Thankfully, the Olliance Group published their summary on the event to remind me to put my thoughts out on it as well. To see theirs – check out their site thinktank.olliancegroup.com.

First, let me say I’m inherently skeptical of anything labled as a “Think Tank”. I think naming an event like that almost sets it up for missed expectations. Luckily the event was a success, even if the name was a bit overstated! Congratulations to Andrew Aitken and Mark Radcliffe for organizing a gathering of this type.

The event covered a lot of topics and the Olliance Group already wrote the comprehensive summary, so I’ll recap the highlights for me personally:

• Enterprise customers don’t buy ‘open source’, they buy solutions to their problems – This was the most reassuring observation which was presented and widely endorsed by the panel of enterprise CIOs. Some went as far as arguing that if the opening line of a pitch was “we’re open source” and the substance was weak (or equivalent to that of a more reputable vendor) you’re not getting any money from them. Cost reduction was viewed as a bonus over workable, deployable solutions to real problems. Enterprise customers are open to participating in communities and are eager to reap the benefits…. but they don’t care about having access to the source code of a product or participating as much as some would like to think. Further, the more time and energy is spent in chasing the definition of what ‘true open source’ is, the more OSS vendors are viewed as sandal-wearing zealots and subsequently written off.
• Bottom-up sales models are difficult/impossible in the enterprise – Part of the argument for commercial open source is that you build a leaner sales process which starts with direct access to the technology and ideally results in a smooth engagement with a customer willing to pay for whatever you offer (as long as it meets the need). This means most open source companies have little or no tolerance for expensive, long sales cycles. Ironically, these are the standard MO for enterprise customers. POC’s, RFP’s, onsite pre-sales support, etc. are all things we expect to mitigate by giving prospects access to the technology *before* we even engage. Unfortunately, this is still difficult to pull off. It’s hard for a startup vendor of open source technology to resist playing what amounts to ‘someone else’s game’ when competing dollar for dollar with a competitor which can’t leverage the frictionless adoption model of OSS.
• The GPL is the most used, yet least understood license – We’re GPL. I was curious and informally polled both vendors and customers about their impressions of the GPL. I was amazed by the response. First, the ‘viral’ question. No one seems to be able to give a consistent answer to when GPL does or doesn’t “taint” a related piece of technology. Second, the issue of GPL licenses and copyright and IP ownership. Customers and vendors still don’t seem to get the notion that open sourcing technology does not immediately relinquish your ownership of it. The use of the GPL makes this even worse, by suggesting that dual licensing is the only way ‘around’ this. This causes undue confusion by potential customers who spend time drafting ‘no-open-source’ policies.

And finally…

• Open source executives like to hang out with each other – This might seem obvious given the nature of the ‘tank, but because of the community driven nature of our business and the fact that there’s tons we’re still figuring out, it seems logical that we’d enjoy getting together.

In the end, there was good networking and the opportunity to share a few drinks and some good ideas with other industry folks. We’re still scratching the surface of this business model, and I’m glad that there are events like this that bring us vendors close to our potential customers and partners to keep us from drinking too much of our own Kool Aid.

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