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What makes an open source Project successful?

16 April 2007

Is the enthusiasm for open source software projects a "bubble" ready to burst and take the model down with it? That's what the CEO of one of the most successful open source projects thinks...

"Right now, open source is hot," said Rod Johnson, author of the Spring Java development framework and CEO of Interface21, the company he founded to market it. Most open source projects are supported by an army of volunteers who buy into the hype, but "capitalism will inevitably reassert itself" and developers will find they need to put more effort into steady jobs and private lives, leaving "open source zombies"--unsupported, unmaintained projects--he predicts.

But wait! All is not lost. In his opinion, while the majority of open source projects will fade into obscurity, companies and products that have the critical mass of customers, developers, and employees and financially viable business models could yet make the open source paradigm a force to reckon with.

Read this interesting article from IT News Australia

Labels: business-models, opinion, problems, trends