Frequently Asked Questions about the OpenLogic Expert Community

We've had lots of questions and a few areas of confusion about the Expert Community program, so we've added some new FAQs to answer these questions.

What is the OpenLogic Expert Community?

The OpenLogic Expert Community provides enterprise customers with easy access to the committed, passionate and expert people behind open source projects. It consists a group of open source developers that have agreed to help resolve issues for enterprises using open source.

OpenLogic offers enterprises a support service with a single point of contact for support across more than 200 open source projects. OpenLogic's internal technical support team resolves basic issues. OpenLogic, in turn, contracts with members of the community to resolve more complex issues.

Why don't these companies just use the mailing lists for support like everybody else?

Enterprises are often using hundreds of open source projects and they need easy ways to access support across all of these projects. Trying to obtain support through hundreds of email lists quickly gets too complex to manage. In addition, enterprises often require specific service levels for the software they use.

OpenLogic partners with the Expert Community to create a committed support model, with guaranteed response time. Together, OpenLogic and the Expert Community can increase the use of open source software in the enterprise by providing the support model that large enterprises need.

Do I get paid to be a part of the Expert Community?

Yes, the OpenLogic Rewards program pays Expert Community members in points (redeemable for your choice of cash or rewards) upon successful resolution of an incident. OpenLogic charges enterprise for support. OpenLogic's internal technical support team resolves basic issues. OpenLogic, in turn, contracts with members of the community to resolve more complex issues.

What are the qualifications needed to join the Expert Community?

You'll need to fill out a brief Membership Application. We are looking for committers or contributors for over 200 open source projects that we support. If you are not a project committer, we will ask for a reference from one of the project committers to sponsor or vouch for you. OpenLogic's Expert Community program is a great way to boost your experience and contributions to a project.

If you meet the criteria, we will ask you to sign a one page member agreement for the Expert Community. This agreement outlines our responsibilities and yours.

What will I have to do as a Member of the Expert Community?

As a member, you will have access to a list of customer incidents that we need help resolving. You can choose which incidents to work on by "grabbing" them from the Expert Community Member portal. Once you sign up for an incident, we ask you to work on it expeditiously until resolution. Most incidents will take less than 4 hours to resolve.

What types of incidents will I work on?

Typical incidents are a Tier 3 or 4 issues from an enterprise customer to OpenLogic. Tier 3 and 4 issues are usually complex project specific issues involving integration, interoperability issues or requiring examination or change in the source code of the open source project.

If I join the OpenLogic Expert Community, how do I get paid?

Through the OpenLogic Reward program, you will receive 100 points per incident you resolve. If an incident takes an unusually long time to resolve, you can appeal for more points. Points can be traded in for cash (100 points = $100 dollars) or merchandise (such as an Xbox 360). You can also choose to donate your points as cash to your favorite open source project or one of the charities on our list.

How do I get an Xbox 360?

The first 75 people to join will receive an Xbox 360 after they solve the first tier 3 or tier 4 issue that is sent to them.

Additional FAQs (added 5/9/06)

I heard that you are only paying people in prizes. Is that true?

Nope. For each incident you resolve, you will receive 100 points that you can then choose to redeem for cash (100 points = $100) or merchandise. You can also donate your points to your favorite open source project or one of the charities on our list. We added the merchandise and donation options based on feedback from open source community members that wanted a choice.

But I'm sure I read that you are paying with Xboxes. What if I don't want an Xbox?

We can kind of see how it could have been a little confusing, so here's the full scoop. There are two ways you could get an Xbox. (For the record, the idea for having the choice of an Xbox as a reward didn't start with us. Rather, it came from developers in the community who told us they'd like to have a choice.)

The first is to use the points that you earn for resolving issues for merchandise (of which the Xbox is one choice). If you don't want an Xbox, choose a different option - like cash or other merchandise or donating to your favorite open source organization. We promise we won't make you use an Xbox ;-)
The second way you could get an Xbox is through our special promotion. In this promotion, the first 75 people to join the Expert Community get an Xbox once they resolve their first issue. (This Xbox is in addition to the normal 100 points you will receive for resolving an issue). If you fall into this category, we are happy to give you the cash equivalent instead. Just let us know which you prefer when your first issue is resolved.

Is payment limited to $100? What if an incident takes a long time to resolve?

We are anticipating that most incidents will take less than 4 hours - some may even take much less. For incidents that take more than 4 hours, we have a simple appeals process to request additional points.

If I'm not in the US will I still get paid in US dollars?

You will have the choice to take your payment in US dollars or your local currency. If you choose to take payment in your local currency, we will pay the equivalent of 100 USD in your local currency based on the current exchange rates. You will not have to pay any currency exchange fees.

What about taxes?

You would need to pay any applicable taxes according to the laws of your local country. For US residents, OpenLogic will issue a 1099 form to any member that we pay over $600 per calendar year, per US law.

Can I make enough to do this full-time?

At this point, we would not recommend that anyone quit their job to become a member of the Expert Community.

Will the terms of this program change?

When we post an issue to be resolved, we will also post the points you will earn if you resolve the issue. We won't reduce the points on issues we have posted, but we can increase the points through our appeals process.

This program is just launching so we will be looking for additional feedback from our Expert Community members as well as other open source developers. We may make changes to the program from time to time based on feedback we receive. We want to make sure that this program works for the open source developers in the Expert Community, so if we find out we got something wrong in how the program works, we want to be able to fix it. Help us keep the dialog going. Feel free to email Stormy Peters stormy.peters@openlogic.com with any questions or feedback.