Proposal for an Open Source Program
in The Open Group

Proposal for steps towards the creation of a new Program, with new membership links to existing activities 
Prepared by Walter Stahlecker, edited November 12th 2002

Motivation to Act

Open Source is a thriving model and it has produced excellent solutions for a range of challenges. But there are non-technical obstacles which prevent deployment of Open Source in areas where it would be a very good fit. These obstacles are motivating this proposal with the following figures attempting to describe the area of interest.

The basic drivers of an open source developers community are quite different from those of an enterprise when solutions are composed.  This may not be an issue at a specific point in time because there will be known situations on both sides and fitness for purpose can be seen objectively.  However when seen over a longer lifecycle the different drivers will at least lead to alignment discussions, possibly to conflicts, and at worst to disagreement over perceptions. It is therefore important to explore ways to build bridges and trust in the mutual lifecycle models.  An aspect to be highlighted is the capture of requirements. In The Open Group there is an increasi ng awareness that architecture and solutions are greatly dependent on diligence in capturing requirements. The same seems to be happening in open source communities.

There are specific other areas of improvements to be gained from a dialog between enterprises and Open Source communities. 

Enterprises will benefit from understanding how open source can be best used. This starts with simple issues such as misperceptions about licenses and exposures. And there are real opportunities in learning how to integrate open source into established procurement and maintenance patterns. Ignorance in this area is a fertile ground for politics which causes wasteful debates and, even worse, low returns from investment decisions based on such politics.