Enterprise Community Model?
October 8th, 2006Henri Yandell: …the ASF is not a place for developing new projects. Nobody starts a project there, and few ever have.
This is something I’ve noticed as well. I think Apache should really be asking “why?” The above is just a small part of his thoughts on Apache. He ties it all together talking about Apache as the enterprise community model:
I think a lot of this adds up to one thing. The search for enterprise open source. Now, don’t make rash judgements about what I mean there - I really should be saying ‘enterprise open community’. It’s not software (peopleware, whateverware) for the enterprise, it’s about trying to apply the difference that exists between an enterprise company and a small company to open source projects. What do we get when we amalgramate in large numbers; what is the value. We get to lower costs - meaning time and money, in terms of shared hardware and shared expertise. We get to share brand, so that trust for one spreads to the others, though it also has a backlash of weakening the original trust a little. We get bigger boots - so if Apache can speak as one on an issue, they can speak louder.
I would add that this implies that the Apache community style is not the right community style for every project - contrary to the many ASF bigots who like to put out Apache as the One True Way propoganda. We need other models as well. The dictator model is usually my favorite because projects that are developed by one or two people instead of group-think tend to be better. (And no I’m not talking about my own projects.)