At OpenLogic we review open source software prior to adding it to our certified library.  Projects get added to our queue in a number of ways, but more often than not, customers contact us and let us know they are using a project and ask us if we will review, certify and add the project to our library.  The first step in our certification process is to verify that the project is indeed open source.  For example, we automatically disqualify projects that are "free" or "demo" products that aren't provided with source code.  But more importantly, we review the terms under which the package is licensed.  This is probably the best way to determine if the project is really open source or not.  Many times it is easy to tell if it is an open source license, for example if the license is well known (like GPL or the Apache License) or if it is based on a well known license (like BSD) with minor, inconsequential changes.  But often, the licensing is not so cut and dry.

We've recently made a decision at OpenLogic to focus more on adding novel, valuable, instructive content to OpenLogic Exchange (OLEX).  Not that this hasn't been important in the past, but it's not been a top priority; building out our certified library has.

So when I talk about what a community manager is, I usually mention leading by influence, advocating, explaining viewpoints, defending the community, representing the community within the company, and in general keeping the community healthy. They are ambassadors that spend lots of time communicating.

In my last post, I question the accuracy of the CIO.com survey. One of the numbers I was skeptical about was:

CIO.com did an interesting survey about open source usage in the enterprise. While I question the accuracy of some of the numbers, if you take them as a general guideline, they generate some interesting discussion. For example, as an answer to the question "do we really need support for open source software?"

I'm very excited - I am now officially joining the GNOME Foundation as Executive Director! Some background for those of you not familiar with GNOME. The GNOME project is:

Replicator quoting research which shows that people who customize their car (from bumper stickers to whatever) are more likely to engage in road rage.  The logic is that the customization is indicative of someone that thinks of their car as personal space and more easily tilts when confronted with bad driving.  I didn't read the study (written by CSU profs and published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology), but I can only assume that this is a correlation and that no causation was implied in the study.

Matthew Aslett recently completed a tour of Europe, profiling open source policies and usage in European countries.  Tongue-in-Cheek, he presents a summary of his findings in football tournament format: