COmanage Developers List

At 5:41 PM -0700 5/18/09, Heather Flanagan wrote:
> Hi all -
>
> I've a question about I2 projects - it seems like we don't do a lot 
> to make them truly open source projects.  Is there a reason behind 
> that?

I'm not sure what you mean by "truly open source projects".... over 
the last few years, I've been somewhat surprised by stumbling over 
some of the differences between "the common public perception of how 
OS projects operate" and the reality.... for instance, the vast bulk 
of the work done on apache ( > 90%) is done by people who are paid to 
work on apache by ibm, hp, etc... I think the same statement holds 
true for linux....

there are lots of smaller projects that are truly run by volunteers. 
However,the vast bulk of these seem to die before they get out of 
incubation. And those that do make it further just die at some future 
point (ie the xml security library used by the Shib SP component has 
recently been orphaned.. :-( )

I hear people talk about "put your project on sourceforge and people 
will flock to you and volunteer". Hmmm...I'm not so sure.....

but, now that I'm done whining.... what do you mean by "truly open 
source projects" ?

> I know we're happy to take code submissions, if folks fill out the 
> appropriate forms, but I was pondering opening up COmanage a bit 
> more broadly and wasn't sure if that falls under I2-OK.

Shib + Grouper require the forms (btw, they're just copied from 
apache, with slight modifications) in order to keep the license 
clean.... with Shib, certainly, we have commercial entities picking 
up the code and using it (in their in-house data centers, or 
repackaging it as part of their product). In both cases, they need a 
"clean" license. And anything that says "GPL" sends them thru the 
roof.. and I've already met too many lawyers that don't understand 
the difference between LGPL and GPL...

In my experience, the forms haven't discouraged anybody or any 
company (including SunGuard) from contributing....