[OSGeo-Discuss] scale of FOSS projects

[Miles Fidelman]

jo at frot.org wrote:
> On Thu, May 08, 2008 at 05:14:40PM -0500, P Kishor wrote:
>   
>> On 5/8/08, Schuyler Erle <schuyler at nocat.net> wrote:
>>     
>>>  is that the number-one sine-qua-non of *any* potentially successful
>>>  software project is *shipping working code*.
>>>       
>>>  Until a developer does that, the discussion of whether or not his/her
>>>  project needs or deserves institutional/organizational support
>>>       
>
> That is not what this discussion is about, though. (And the point
> seems self-evident, given this is a discussion about open source
> software projects, defined by having working code "in the wild")
>
>   
I would beg to differ.  There's a lot that goes on BEFORE working code 
is released into the wild.  And very often, institutional support is 
what makes it possible to write code and release it into the wild.

In a previous life, I ran a small hosting business, and relied entirely 
on open source code.  With the exception of Linux - admittedly a big 
exception - everything else I was running had institutional origins, 
with significant amounts of funding supporting the original developers.  
Of particular note:

Apache: started as the NCSA daemon, funded largely by NSF (if I recall 
correctly)
Sendmail: derived from ARPANET delivermail, developed in the university 
environment
Sympa: open-source mailing list manager developed/supported by 
consortium of French universities

These days, one of the things I do for a living is pursue government 
funding so that our firm can develop new software.  One of our current 
projects very explicitly commits, contractually, to releasing our 
results under the GPL.  (Historical note: until the late 70s/early 80s, 
work performed with government funding was generally released into the 
public domain - and an awful lot of today's technology base dates back 
to those years.  IMHO, open source licenses are a reaction to the change 
in policy that allows companies to maintain proprietary rights to 
publicly funded  work).

Miles

-- 
Miles R. Fidelman, Director of Government Programs
Traverse Technologies 
145 Tremont Street, 3rd Floor
Boston, MA  02111
mfidelman at traversetechnologies.com
617-395-8254
www.traversetechnologies.com