The first day of the Open Source Think Tank has been very productive. Alexander Aitken of Olliance Group and Alexandre and Celine Zapolsky (both of Linagora) have done a great job in organizing the conference. The discussion has quite different from our Napa Open Source Think Tank and emphasized the differences between the US and EU software industries. For example, system integrators are the primary contact for European customers in contrast to the United States where the software vendor frequently has direct contact with the customers.
During the brainstorming, my group identified two major challenges for the open source market:
1. The rejection in the EU of commercial open source companies by many customers because they are not viewed as "true open source". Based on the discussion, a significant number of customers in the EU identified "open source software" as a product which is community supported and preferably has multiple service providers providing support to licensees. Clearly, this position poses a significant challenge to many of the US commercial open source vendors which use a dual distribution model based on a commercial product with more functionality than the open source version.
2. The reluctance of major corporations to "openly" contribute to projects. Although many major corporations do contribute to open source projects, they frequently do so in an indirect manner so that their contribution cannot be associated with them. If the corporation does not contribute its improvements to the open source project, then the community and all licensees will not be able to take advantage of the changes. If the corporation contributed indirectly, the open source project misses the legitimacy which open support would confer. Although this reluctance can be based on valid legal concerns, these concerns appear to be exaggerated.
More tomorrow!
