techno.blog("Dion")

After hearing about debacles in open source such as the badgeware fun with SugarCRM it makes you want to push home even more how a huge part of open source for me is the community.

If a company open sources their software yet it is still all run by them it is a token gesture. Sure it is nice that you may be able to patch it in some way. It is great to be able to look at the source too, but that could be done without it being open source ™.

What I am looking for is a diverse community around the product.

If you don’t have any commiters from outside of your company. You probably aren’t community driven.

If you didn’t spend time cleaning up documentation for the community when you opened it up. You probably aren’t community driven.

If your users haven’t helped with the documentation if it is lacking. You probably aren’t community driven.

If you do not have some kind of forums/lists where people help each other out. You probably aren’t community driven.

If you aren’t willing to put in a lot of effort to build your community to get true benefits. You probably aren’t community driven.