Open Source ecosystems: Corporate vs Hybrid production model
Savio Rodriguez recently posted commenting MySQL Quality Contribution Program observing that MySQL’s list of leading community contributors isn’t stacked with MySQL employees. Then he eventually ended talking about the difference between “good community” vs. “good company”.
M.C. Escher’s Mural by deVos
Yesterday talking about the symbiotic approach I mentioned that MySQL and Sun are beginning to approach their communities more effectively, and are likely to see positive returns very soon in my opinion - here I am considering that a significant percentage of contributed code come from developers outside the firm in few known Open Source projects.
Reading Savio’s post I got that the job I did few years ago classifying the FLOSS production model into three organizational categories (Corporate, Voluntary and Hybrid) still makes sense. Projects falling under the Corporate category - i.e. where all stages of software production are carried on within the organization - have the same organizational attributes of projects conducted under a traditional firm. The Corporate category miss the opportunity to get involved individuals (partially) self-selected, and as clearly stated Savio it makes a difference.
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