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January 26, 2005

Demand driven - but who is driving?

I think Matthew's post about demand driven development/itch scratching is only one half of the coin. Yes, it's true that most open source projects are driven this way. If someone needs a functionality she implements it. Well, at least she can try - there are several barriers you have to get across if you're not a committer of the project. You have to get the attention of the community, have to get respected and finally your ideas/patches have to be accepted. And this can be a very tough road!
In addition, I think the open source scene has definitly changed in the last years. More and more companies have recognized that there are some interesting potentials in open source. And this results on the one hand in the fact that companies throw their solutions on the open source market and try to make open source projects out of everything they have.
But on the other hand, more and more projects are driven by one or more companies. Perhaps it's not that obvious in some cases, but there are several prominent projects out there where companies behind some committers rule or try to rule the project.
Sure, still this is itch scratching as someone needed the feature and implemented it. Now this might not be bad and in most cases it might not really matter, but I have the feeling that some projects lost momentum because of this fact.
Some years ago, open source projects were driven by two additional factors: coolness and fun. You just implemented something because you thought it was cool - or you wanted to prove that you're cool :). Or you did it because it was fun or challenging.
Today, you have business interests behind open source projects and companies only invest if they get something in return. So the employees only get time for an open source project if the company has some direct benefit because of this. And this means the development of the project only continues if a company has interest in it. Otherwise it just stales.
Agreed, this does not apply to every open source project, or committer or company, but it's reality :)

Posted by cziegeler at January 26, 2005 08:30 PM