Using the open-source model for IT development

Intellectual-Property Management

Intellectual-property management is a critical consideration when you are creating a shared technology base. Effective IP management includes the selection of an appropriate software license, legal agreements for participants that cover the contribution of IP, and scanning of source code to ensure pedigree and license compatibility.

For instance, the Eclipse Foundation has a well-established IP management system. All participants in the Eclipse community sign the same exact agreement and follow the same IP processes. All Eclipse open-source project committers sign a "committer agreement" that specifies that their contribution is licensed under the Eclipse Public License (EPL). All source code that is contributed to Eclipse projects is automatically scanned to ensure that all of the code is licensed under the EPL or a compatible open-source license. The result is that the technology created in the open-source projects has clear software license and IP pedigree.

Creating a Community

Tim O'Reilly coined the term architecture of participation to describe how open-source projects are able to build and engage a community. The idea is that an open-source community forms around the ability of an individual, regardless of his or her affiliation, to participate. An architecture of participation is created by:

1. Making it easy to extend the technology, and

2. Having an open development process that is transparent to all.

Participation then occurs when those individuals contribute directly back to the project or build new technology on top of the base technology. The end result is an ecosystem that adds the needed components for quick adoption of new technology.

The network effect of smaller communities within the larger communities has also proven very beneficial for starting new projects. A significant challenge for any new community is generating awareness and participation. Organizations such as Apache and Eclipse allow new projects to leverage the larger community to raise their profile with potential community members.

Establishing the IT Infrastructure

The IT infrastructure to host a community-oriented software-innovation network is nontrivial. Typically, open-source collaborations will require a website, source-code repository, bug-tracking database, wikis, mailing lists and newsgroups. Consideration needs to be given into the ongoing administration and management of the infrastructure.

Open Business Models

A goal of a software innovation network is to create an ecosystem of organizations, commercial and not-for-profit, that benefit from a common platform. These organizations will employ a variety of business models and strategies. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the choice of license and governance model allow for maximum flexibility.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Most IT organizations have reduced software-licensing costs by being users of OSS. The next step to additional IT efficiencies will be their participation in OSS projects. Open-source communities like Apache, Eclipse and Linux have demonstrated a model for collaborative software development that can be the basis for any software-innovation network. Visionary IT departments have already begun to leverage this model to collaborate on the development of technology specific to their domain. Over the next few years, open software-innovation networks could very well be the future of software development.

Ian Skerrett is the director of marketing at the Eclipse Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation supporting the Eclipse open-source community and commercial ecosystem. In this role, he is responsible for implementing programs that raise awareness of the Eclipse open source project and grow the overall Eclipse community.