<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif">My experience has been accross some large financil enterprises. So herewith some random thoughts on this issue ....<br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif">
A lot has changed in the last 10-15 years. These days, I find most places have a presumption FOR open source. While NIH does exist, developers will typically try to find an open source solution first to see if it fits their needs.They usually wouldn't open source most of the code they write themselves, but typically have no issues using open source. There is sometimes a conversation to be had about the wisdom of using open source for the "core business process" however defined, but I've found that to be a very rare conversation.<br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif">Creating and maintaining forks is a painful experience. Hence using a open source library is typically a all-or-nothing issue. Especially for a company just starting out to use open source. <br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif">It is too expensive and time consuming to have a lawyer review each project. So a whitelist of allowed licenses is used. This means any custom or 'funky' licenses has to go thru a a full review. Most orgs have a central IT support team that downloads and makes available the product, but they dont have the wherewithal to do a full IP review. <br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif">One sticking point is that organisations usually dont want to annouce the use of any particular product. Hence posting on mail groups from the org email address is frowned upon. Also, any internal project details cannot be leaked, so asking for help in open email lists is sometimes diffcult. This becomes all the more of an issue in the more immature or fast moving projects, where being on the mailing list is important to get a feel of where the project is going. I find this to the most difficult aspect of using OSS products in large enterprises, since engaging well with a community makes using their product much more enjoyable. <br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif">Hope that helps, FWIW. <br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif">Regards<br>-<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif">
Avik<br>
</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 12:53 AM, Alan Buxton <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:alanbuxton@gmail.com" target="_blank">alanbuxton@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div link="blue" vlink="purple" lang="EN-GB"><div><p class="MsoNormal">Dear LRUG<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">I made the transition from Startup to Enterprise recently (my company was acquired). So far so good.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">The challenge I have now is that the Enterprise finds Open Source a bit tricksy. Hard for a company that is used to having suppliers or internal teams with SLAs and IP controls to handle the idea of using open source. However they do appreciate that Open Source is important and is going to grow.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">So I have a mini project right now to put together some policy guidelines for The Enterprise on using open source to cover things like<u></u><u></u></p><p><u></u><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><u></u>When is it appropriate to use it (e.g. in certain industries it might be less appropriate)<u></u><u></u></p>
<p><u></u><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><u></u>What should you consider when choosing a piece of open source technology<u></u><u></u></p>
<p><u></u><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><u></u>From an IP point of view how would you make the tradeoff between building something using open source components vs creating it yourself from scratch<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Rather nebulous, I know, which is why I’m interested in soliciting your views on this. Presumably the GDS or BBC or whoever people have already figured this all out, right?<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Thanks<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><u></u><u></u></font></span></p><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><p class="MsoNormal">Alan<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></font></span></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
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