OpenProj: The Sequel
I recently wrote a blog post about what what happened when Projity (backers of OpenProj) got acquired by Serena Software.
After months of trying to get attention from the OpenProj community about some missing source code (including forum posts, emails, calls to Serena) I finally resorted to public embarassment in hopes of getting a result. This is definitely not my preferred means of getting a response, but we had a customer issue that we needed the source code for. I blogged about it and also twittered (with an @serenasoft) in a last ditch effort to get a response.
The good news is, it worked. The very next day, the missing source code was posted and our Expert Community member has created a patch that we are testing for the customer.
As I step back and look at this incident, I see a couple of positives and a couple of interesting things to think about.
Positives:
- Because OpenProj was open source meant that we could resolve an issue for the customer, even when it wasn't a high priority for the OpenProj committers.
- We were able to attempt to contact the committers (even though we didn't get a response).
- Twitter in combination with a blog provided us a way to escalate the issue when we didn't get a response through traditional channels.
Thoughts:
- It's still not clear to me if Serena understands fully the implications of "owning" an open source project. It's not just about adding code, but also about fostering the community. I think this could be an issue for other proprietary companies that buy open source vendors as well.
- This also highlights some of the problems with a "vendor controlled community". When the vendor is no longer focused on the open source project, it may mean that project languishes.
- By opening and developing the OpenProj community, they could build support for OpenProj and those benefits could help their "for pay business".
Although the OpenProj team has now made the missing source code available and continues to add patches, I'm interested to see if they start participating more actively in the mailing lists and forums. If the community as continues to languish, we will have to reconsider whether it belongs on our list of certified open source packages.
2 Responses »
It appears as if Serena may be confusing “development community” with “user/customer/marketing community.” The timing is hard to read in any other way than that your blog post got attention that your ordinary, in-community actions did not. Traditional software companies have always had “user groups” and “support portals,” but a developer community needs to be something else.
Thanks for presenting this as an object lesson in community care, including this follow-up!