We’ll Know One When We See One

When Harold Goldberg, our new CEO, joined us earlier this year he probed hard for the true definition of an open source company and how it directs our behavior. Having worked in this industry since 2001, I was somewhat embarrassed how vague my answer was.

A recent intense debate in the blogoshere about the topic demonstrates that even the best minds in this industry find it hard to agree on the definition. It started when Nat Torkington asked the question with an eye on who should be invited to OSCON. If you want to track the educated opinions given in response, check these entries by Allison Randal, Matt Asay, Open Source Magazine, Stephen O’Grady (incl follow up), Michael Tieman and Lukas Smith.

In all these entries there is significant agreement about what open source software is. Much less agreement exists about what an open source company is or if it is even important to have such agreement. The strongest argument in favor of the agreement seems to be that a club of members can be created, with bragging rights and a chance to be a presenter at OSCON.

We may find it hard to agree on a definition of an open source company, but in general we all know one when we see one (with the exception of EnterpriseDB?). This phrase was first used by a Supreme Court Justice to indicate that intuition is a valid alternative when a definition is hard to come by. I have full confidence that Nat will be able to use his intuition to get the invitations for OSCON right.