One of the hardest things to create in open-source software is a project that attracts significant outside development contributions. While Mozilla can count on 40 percent of its development deriving from non-Mozilla sources, most open-source projects are lucky to get 4 percent from outside contributors--or 0.04 percent.
This is why I find Jahia's licensing model so intriguing. Jahia is an open-source Web Content Management (WCM) vendor that competes with proprietary solutions like Vignette (OpenText) and Interwoven (Autonomy). Unlike most open-source WCM systems, however, Jahia has set up a rewards program to encourage contributions, with significant discounts on a commercial subscription offered in exchange for significant contributions to the Jahia code base, dubbed a "Contribute or Pay" program, as outlined in Jahia's licensing white paper.
No triple charging: Those who contributed based on the JSEL get the software of the next release and all subsequent releases that contain the contributed feature for free within their standard subscription. This is fair, because it avoids commercial contributors getting charged three times: first for paying Jahia to develop and include the new feature, then for obtaining the new release that includes it and finally for maintaining it. Unfortunately, triple charging is the typical business practice for proprietary alternatives to Jahia. Contributors to Jahia EE only pay when they purchase or renew their support subscription, which already includes Jahia software at no additional cost.
Jahia is trying to reward customers and contributors, ensuring that they only have to pay once--in cash or in kind--for the value they contribute to Jahia. Specifically, those who contribute code to Jahia "save on maintenance costs upon approval by Jahia," or they can pay Jahia to write the suggested contributions and won't be charged for maintenance on those additions.
I reached out to Tristan Renaud, vice president of sales and corporate development at Jahia, for further commentary, and will post it once I receive it. For example, how does Jahia determine the value of contributions? And how much will it discount subscription services in exchange for sponsored "contributions" that a customer pays Jahia to develop?
Even without the details, however, I find the approach refreshing. It seems like Jahia is offering a good "quid pro quo" model, as Stephen Croisier suggests, and one that other open-source companies should consider.
Disclosure: Jahia is a competitor to Alfresco, my employer, as well as a potential partner.
Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.
Drupal has always been a great open-source Web content management system. Forrester called it one of the two open-source content management systems to consider. Its biggest deficiency was arguably a lack of enterprise-class support and polish to support the project.
On Tuesday, however, Acquia, the company behind Drupal, remedied this void, launching its commercially supported distribution of Drupal and a network service to provide updates and other services around the core Drupal distribution.
Acquia is taking a page out of Red Hat's playbook, boiling down the complexity of the deep and wide Drupal community. While I like the look of its Network service, it is the Acquia Drupal distribution that I think is most newsworthy for enterprises looking to adopt Drupal. Dries Buytaert, Drupal's co-founder, explains:
(We are) releasing Acquia Drupal today. Acquia Drupal (previously code-named Carbon) is our Drupal distribution that bundles some of the best, most essential Drupal modules for building social publishing sites. Acquia Drupal is available for free, and all our bug fixes and improvements go straight to the module maintainers on Drupal.org. Acquia Drupal defines the collection of modules that you can get technical support for.
In other words, there's still an open world of community-supported Drupal for those that value cash over time and other resources. But for those that wouldn't mind a shortcut to Drupal-based productivity, there's Acquia Drupal.
It will be interesting to see how well this service takes off, and how its community reacts. As OStatic notes, Acquia's biggest competition will be the Drupal community or, rather, the developers and system integrators who currently make a living providing Drupal-based support. The response so far, however, has been positive from the Drupal community, and I think this will continue.
I suspect Acquia will do just fine as it learns to walk the line between commercial and community. Drupal is an excellent open-source project, and Acquia is filled with similarly excellent people. The marriage of the two should be a boon to enterprises that have adopted or are considering adopting Drupal.
Forrester Research just released a great report detailing the open-source web content management market. In it, Forrester analyst Stephen Powers highlights a shift to open source for managing websites:
As organizations embark on next-generation Web content management (WCM) initiatives, they want to avoid the mistakes made in earlier, more costly WCM projects. As a result, information and knowledge management professionals increasingly show an interest in open source WCM as a way of controlling software costs and increasing their access to product-specific expertise in the marketplace.
That's great: Enterprises should move to open-source web content management offerings. But which ones?
Out of the wide pool of open-source web content management projects (There are, quite literally, hundreds), Forrester says there are two to which CIOs and CTOs need to pay particular attention:
In answer to the question, "Why these two?" Forrester answers: Relevance. As Powers writes:
... Read moreI was thinking through the open source diffusion model over the last few days, and put together this slide. It's not groundbreaking by any stretch (Larry Augustin and John Roberts are much more articulate on this point than I am), but it reflects the way open source spreads.
On the open source side, you start with users and then convert them into customers. On the proprietary side, you start with marketing and sales to create customers. No users until they pay.
The key point here is in the difference in focus. ... Read more
In this tenth installment of the Open Source CEO Series, I shifted gears again to talk with someone that has chosen not to carry the CEO title, despite ample opportunity to claim it. (I know a range of VCs who would love to invest in Drupal.) Dries Buytaert, the founder of Drupal, is Linus-like in his ability to build an amazing community without undue concern for commercializing his success. I think he's one of the most interesting people in open source, given what he's accomplished and what he continues to forego in terms of cash and publicity.
I caught up with Dries on his way to the O'Reilly Foo Camp. Here's a guy who has created one of the world's best open source web content management systems...yet I bet no one will recognize him at the airport...or even at FOO.
Name, position, and company of executive
... Read more
Dries Buytaert, Founder and Project Lead, Drupal. Dries blogs here.
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