on 6/16/03 5:27 AM Matthew Langham wrote:
To the Cocoon Community
The involvement of commercial entities in an open source project can help
tremendously with its success. If we look at the Linux OS, the Apache web
server or other important open source projects, we often can see a mixed
model where business and open source go side by side.
In the past, the commercial side of Cocoon has been slightly in the dark.
Some community members were known to be commercial entities, but in general,
their commercial side has been intentionally kept low profile. We believe
that this can be especially a disadvantage when it comes to enticing new
companies into the world of Cocoon - they might fear that there is no
support nor additional tools which will help them to build sustainable
operations based on our beloved Cocoon project.
In addition, we are perceiving an increasing need for additional Cocoon
services such as training or consulting.
At the previous GetTogether, the undersigned started a loose discussion on
forming some sort of business alliance with the aim of being an umbrella
under which commercial entities could discuss business perspectives, share
resources or work together on new Cocoon related topics.
The undersigned were able to join in open discussion (although being
competitors) because we felt that the business model laid out in the
Cluetrain manifesto was a Good Thing when it comes to defining business in
the Internet age. Also, as much as we care about our own businesses, we have
been working inside this wonderful Cocoon community for a long time and care
a great deal about its sustained development, both community- and
technology-wise.
These discussions resulted in a consortium of 6 European companies, whose
names are well familiar to the Cocoon community, joining forces to
accelerate the corporate adoption of Cocoon by offering a shared vision of
support and services. The name of the consortium is Orixo and the website is
at http://www.orixo.com
We feel very strong about the fact that an open source-related business
initiative should have a particular emphasis on giving back to the
community. The undersigned are all active members of the Cocoon project, and
we hope that our joined efforts will continue to be beneficial for the
entire Cocoon community. With regards to our involvement in the Cocoon
project, business remains as usual.
Signed
Anyware Technologies
Luminas
Otego
Outerthought
Pro-netics
SN AG
I would like to express some comments about this.
First and most important, I am *VERY* *HAPPY* to see something like this
finally happening. The greatest strenght of a healthy community is its
diversity and ability to keep balance with decentralization.
I've been knowing that Orixo was in the making and they asked me for
suggestion and criticism. Even if some of that criticism was strong and
potentially harmful for them, they were ready to discuss it and to do
what was best for both their interest and the cocoon community's.
This left me with a very nice warm feeling about this, a feeling that it
might well be possible to do commercial collaboration with the same
attitude used to do open source software.
Please note that what Orixo is trying to achieve is highly innovative: a
consortium of companies is not a new thing, but a consortium of
companies backed up with community feelings is, IMO, innovative.
Will it work? nobody knows, but I wish to all the people involved the
best luck. And I really mean it.
All those companies contributed *significatively* to the evolution of
Cocoon, in many different ways and I'm sure they will continue to do so
in the future, because it's also in their interests.
Who believes that altruism is the engine of open source really doesn't
get it: sellfishness is, but sellfishness gets a different taste when
it's in a world with more aboundance.
In this sense, the difference between Orixo and JBoss Corp. (for
example) is striking: Orixo is a community of companies, sharing
material, partial costs and pooling resources at need, while keep
different and balancing identities, covering national boundaries.
But the best thing of this is, IMO, the fact that since the different
entities remain isolated, there won't be a community perception of
polarization or Orixo secret agenda or orixo abusing the community
as it is becoming the case with JBoss Corp.
This is incredibly important: providing services on top of a community
that hates you is going to be very bad for a commercial entity. Orixo,
with its decentralized nature, will probably never have to face this
problem.
Please not that I am not, by no means, associated with Orixo (I happened
to do consulting for Otego, Pro-Netics and Luminas, but this was not
related to Orixo), but I consider all the people involved as friends
and, as a friend, I wish them the best of luck from their new commercial
venture.
I really hope they can have the same fun they are
