[OpenStack Foundation] [Openstack] Foundation Structure: An Alternative

Jim Jagielski jimjag at gmail.com
Fri Mar 16 13:10:22 UTC 2012


On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 7:11 PM, Stefano Maffulli <stefano at openstack.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 2012-03-14 at 15:50 -0400, Jim Jagielski wrote:
>> A true open source community cannot survive if its not on a level
>> field; any entity "more equal than others" has an undue advantage.
>
> AFAIK Rackspace only owns the trademark. The code is owned by the
> author, just like Apache. I don't see much advantage there, especially
> for the past when the mark had near to zero value.
>
>> And
>> even if they don't take advantage of it, what happens when they get
>> bought out by someone?
>
> That hasn't happened yet. And setting up the foundation to manage the
> trademark is a step to minimize this risk.
>
> Do you see something I don't see here?
> .stef
>

Just an overriding desire, it seems, to favor big-name players, with
deep pockets, over a real community; the desire to start *big*, and
get bigger; the desire to see how much money can be pulled in, and not
so much where that money goes or how it ultimately helps the
*community* instead of the *foundation*.

OpenStack will turn into a business consortium made up of large,
well-financed companies, who will determine the course and direction
of the so-called "open source projects" and unless you're able to pay
up, smaller players will simply have to take what they are given. And
the only personal incentive developers will have to work on the code
will be their bonuses and payments.

Open source communities are built around passion for the code, not
passion for the foundation (or its income).



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