I worked on a FOSS project. Part of the Kuali consortia, making software for higher education.
I took the job to learn how these kinds of projects work. Specifically, the governance model. Well, it didn't.
I wish I understood why.
Writing about open sourcing Solaris, I think it was btilly who said that others had the right to fork, but not the power.
That describes Kuali perfectly. We consortia members couldn't do anything to help ourselves improve things, like simple bug fixes, without it being a major production. Very disempowering, pretty much the opposite of why I wanted to work on FOSS.
We need academic style comparative analysis of FOSS governance models, funding models, project methodologies, etc. Learn from our mistakes, help people in the future.
I figure any percieved inertia in Kuali is a reflection of it's constituents. If all consortia members' IT dept are on an annual upgrade cycle over summer break, there's little incentive to push out daily bug fixes.
Plus, I'm guessing Indiana University has outsized influence on the shape of the project, since they founded it.
> We need academic style comparative analysis of FOSS governance models, funding models, project methodologies, etc. Learn from our mistakes, help people in the future.
I have a book here on my desk: "The business and Economics of Linux and Open Source" by Martin Fink. It's from 2002, and could use an update clearly.
I took the job to learn how these kinds of projects work. Specifically, the governance model. Well, it didn't.
I wish I understood why.
Writing about open sourcing Solaris, I think it was btilly who said that others had the right to fork, but not the power.
That describes Kuali perfectly. We consortia members couldn't do anything to help ourselves improve things, like simple bug fixes, without it being a major production. Very disempowering, pretty much the opposite of why I wanted to work on FOSS.
We need academic style comparative analysis of FOSS governance models, funding models, project methodologies, etc. Learn from our mistakes, help people in the future.