True Facts about Open Source

September 2, 2013

Open source is lauded as the end all solution to all software needs and the end of proprietary software. PBS’s Idea Lab speaks to the contrary in “6 Things To Know About Successful (And Failed) Open Source Software.” Rich Gordon researched how open source software was adopted and he discovered that University of Massachusetts faculty members Charles Schweik and Robert English had already done most of the legwork. The pair analyzed open source projects hosted on SourceForge and classified them into two categories: initiation stage and growth stage. With the addition of SourceForge survey of 1400 developers, they gathered their results. Gordon summarized their results.

Rich found from the research that most open source projects are not successful, but they all share the common characteristics of a defined vision, clear goals, defined set of users, and a modular architecture for others to work on. The biggest common factor being effective leadership. Open source software really takes off when the developers are the actual end users, which comes into play with trying to find collaborators. You can be sure that if someone has a specific need, another person in the world has it too, so finding teammates is not as hard via the Internet. As the project progresses beginning features often lose their importance, just as success cannot be measured through a large-scale adoption.

One of the main factors of success for either open source stage is this:

“…[W]hether the people leading the project have demonstrated leadership by articulating a clear vision, having a professional web presence and maintaining an active bug-tracking system or other communication platform for interacting with the user community.”

Dedication, a strong team, and equally strong leaders are the key to a successful open source project. Roots only spread as far as the sun provides nourishment.

Whitney Grace, September 02, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Open source

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.