Re: [OSCOM] Some questions about open-source project governance

Tony,

most of your questions are worth writing a whole book about them or at 
least organizing a conference :)

Tony Byrne - CMS Watch wrote:
>  - Is some sort of foundation an essential step in the maturation of an
> open-source project?  It seems like a lot of major OS CMS packages are
> going that way.

The success factors here are to have the right foundation for the right 
project aiming at the right market segment. "Major" OS CMS could be 
those that do one thing very well or which do many things reasonably well.

>  - If so, what's the best way initially to create a board to govern an
> open-source project?

With eZ systems being a company and the main force behind the eZ publish 
CMS, we see ourselves just like MySQL: it's the "Cathedral in the 
Bazaar" model. There's often a thin line between the eZ company and the 
eZ community. The company is not too hierarchical to avoid being 
intransparent and to loose innovative power. On the other hand, it is 
not too open to avoid that decisions cannot be taken due to to many 
points of view.

The success factor here is, to find a good balance between efficiency by 
openness and efficiency by strategic decision-making. This is even true 
if there's no sort of "legal" foundation, it's the basis of any 
successful project.

>  - How do you balance broad community participation on the one hand, and
> code quality & application simplicity on the other? 

By having the proper communication flow being part of the project. 
Again, the same is true like above: it is a balance between openness and 
strategic decision-making, and it the way the communication flow is 
structured depends on the project and the actors involved.

>  - Do projects that create an architecture for 3rd-party, add-on
> "plug-ins" or "products" have a leg up here?  If so, how do you respond
> to inevitable community demands to "certify" add-on modules?  

Yes, add-ons are a good vehicle to involve third-parties. Of course, 
this is not only true for FOSS CMS, but for the whole software market.

Concerning certification, here it is a real advantage to have one 
leading company like eZ systems is for eZ publish, that has the highest 
expertise concerning its product - and is able to provide high-quality 
certificates..

>  - Do open-source infrastructure (webserver, DB, operating system)
> projects have an easier go of this than CMS packages, despite the
> formers' large size?  It seems to me they do, particularly in setting
> scope.

Yes, because a CMS needs to be highly customizable, while e.g. an RDBMS 
is mainly used standalone/out-of-the-box. In fact, a good/successful 
FOSS CMS needs to provide both: the basic infrastructure aka framework 
for customization and out-of-the-box solutions.

Cheers!
Sandro
-- 
Senior Consultant
[email protected] | eZ systems | www.ez.no